The level of intensity of soft winter wheat varieties infection by Fusarium link pathogens and their identification on grain

Abstract

In today's environment, an important task of agricultural production is to increase yields and improve the quality of agricultural products. A reliable and environmentally beneficial factor for sustainable yield increase and improvement of grain quality is the development of new varieties with group resistance to diseases and a high level of adaptability. The effectiveness of selection for immunity directly depends on the diversity of donor resistance genes, and the search for new sources of resistance has been and remains an urgent issue. The aim of the study was to determine the level of infection of soft winter wheat varieties with Fusarium head blight pathogens and to identify them. Varieties of soft winter wheat from different breeding institutions of Ukraine were used in the research: Institute of Plant Industry named after V.Y. Yuriev NAAS (IPI), Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (IPPG), Institute of Plant Protection NAAS (IPP), Institute of Irrigated Agriculture NAAS (IA), National Research Center "Institute of Agriculture NAAS" (NRC IA). Phytopathological analysis was used to determine the species composition of the Fusarium pathogen, and the proportion of species was determined by the ratio of infected wheat grain samples to their total number. A higher (15-18%) level of Fusarium infection intensity was observed in the varieties Perfect, Turunchuk, Ovid, Vodograi, and Mirolyubna. During the years of research, winter wheat grain was colonized by the following species of Fusarium ear blight: F. sporotrichiella, F. monilifopme, F. graminearum, F. culmorum, F. avenaceum, F. gibbosum F. sambucinum and F. oxysporium. The species F. monilifopme and F. oxysporium dominated, with a prevalence of 16.2 and 1.7% on wheat grain, respectively. The winter wheat varieties with the lowest (1.2-4.5%) damage by pathogens of the genus Fusarium are recommended for use in wheat breeding for immunity. The use of stable source material in practical breeding will help to curb the growth of pathogen infection without the use of chemical protection agents.