Abstract
Cucumber plants subjected to consecutive monoculture for 9 years were found to suffer from severe Fusarium wilt disease, caused by the soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Cucumerinum J. H. Owen. In the present study, greenhouse experiments were performed to evaluate the influence of ammonia gas fumigation on Fusarium wilt suppression, fungal abundance and fungal community composition. Results showed that ammonia gas fumigation remarkably reduced disease incidence from 80% to 27%, resulting in a four-fold increase in yield, compared to the control. Total fungal abundance declined dramatically after fumigation and reached the lowest level at day 32, at 243 times lower than the control. Moreover, fumigation significantly increased soil fungal diversity, though it also decreased considerably coinciding with cucumber growth. Fumigation also significantly altered soil fungal community composition, relative to the control. Fusarium was strongly inhibited by fumigation in both relative abundance (3.8 times lower) and targeted quantification (a decrease of 167 fold). Collectively, the application of ammonia gas fumigation to control Fusarium wilt of cucumber resulted in a re-assembly of the fungal community to resemble that of a non-disease conducive consortium. Additional strategies, such as bioorganic fertilizer application, may still be required to develop sustainable disease suppression following fumigation.
Highlights
Cucumber plants subjected to consecutive monoculture for 9 years were found to suffer from severe Fusarium wilt disease, caused by the soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is an important global vegetable crop whose production can be severely hindered by infection with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp
Disease incidence in the control (CK) and fumigation (F) treatments showed that wilt disease was extremely severe with an average incidence rate of 80% in the CK treatment while the F treatment significantly (p < 0.05) decreased disease incidence to 26.7%, resulting in a control efficacy of 66.7% (Fig. 1A)
Summary
Cucumber plants subjected to consecutive monoculture for 9 years were found to suffer from severe Fusarium wilt disease, caused by the soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. The application of ammonia gas fumigation to control Fusarium wilt of cucumber resulted in a reassembly of the fungal community to resemble that of a non-disease conducive consortium. Additional strategies, such as bioorganic fertilizer application, may still be required to develop sustainable disease suppression following fumigation. To control Fusarium wilt of cucumber, our previous studies revealed that the application of bioorganic fertilizer composed of a combination of biocontrol agents and compost decreased disease incidence with a concomitant increase in yield[5,6,7]. The most effective fumigant is methyl bromide, which can effectively control soil-borne disease by killing the causative fungal pathogens. Bars with different letters represent significant difference at p < 0.05
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