Abstract
Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused by Fusarium pathogens is one of the most devastating fungal diseases of small grain cereals worldwide, substantially reducing yield quality and food safety. Its severity is increasing due to the climate change caused by weather fluctuations. Intensive research on FHB control methods has been initiated more than a decade ago. Since then, the environment has been rapidly changing at regional to global scales due to increasing anthropogenic emissions enhanced fertilizer application and substantial changes in land use. It is known that environmental factors affect both the pathogen virulence as well as plant resistance mechanisms. Changes in CO2 concentration, temperature, and water availability can have positive, neutral, or negative effects on pathogen spread depending on the environmental optima of the pathosystem. Hence, there is a need for studies of plant–pathogen interactions in current and future environmental context. Long-term monitoring data are needed in order to understand the complex nature of plants and its microbiome interactions. We suggest an holobiotic approach, integrating plant phyllosphere microbiome research on the ecological background. This will enable the development of efficient strategies based on ecological know-how to fight Fusarium pathogens and maintain sustainable agricultural systems.
Highlights
Climate change has resulted in significant changes in weather patterns, precipitation distribution, and temperature fluctuations (FAO 2008)
quantitative trait loci (QTL) for Fusarium head blight (FHB) disease linked with the heading date, plant height, spikelet morphology, kernel discoloration were found in all wheat chromosomes except chromosome
As the primary Fusarium pathogen inoculum source is crop residues, a sound approach would be the application of biocontrol agents to the soil in order to reduce the survival of the pathogen [18,19,25]
Summary
Climate change has resulted in significant changes in weather patterns, precipitation distribution, and temperature fluctuations (FAO 2008). Many Fusarium spp. are effective plant pathogens or secondary invaders of worldwide concern. Based on the perceived scientific and economic importance, Fusarium spp. were recently included in the top 10 globally most important genera of plant pathogenic fungi [13]. FHB is caused by a complex of up to 20 different co-existing Fusarium species [14,15,16,17,18], substantially reducing cereal yield and quality and negatively impacting food safety. Contamination of grain with mycotoxins leads to a quality loss for human consumption and poses difficulties in processing and feeding contaminated grain to animal species [14,15,16,17,18,21]. The refore, maximum allowable DON levels in food products have been established http://www.fao.org/3/y5499e/y5499e07.htm and EC regulation EC856/2005 amended in July 2007/EC number 1126/2007) [23]
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