The Reaction of some Maize Hybrids, Created at ARDS TURDA, to Fusarium spp. Infection

Abstract

The most important disease of maize in Romania are stalk and ear rot, which caused yield losses in average of 20%. The resistant hibrids represent one of the most efficient solution for reducing the field loses caused by Fusarium spp. on the maize (Nagy et al., 2006). Diseases caused by Fusarium spp. can affect the yield and grain quality of maize because of contamination with numerous mycotoxins produced by these fungi (Czembor et al., 2015). The purpose of this paper was to know more about the reaction of different maize hybrids to Fusarium and the evaluating the effect of ear rot on the yield ability and mycotoxins accumulation. The experiments carried out at ARDS Turda, during four years (2012-2015). The biological material was represented by 8 hybrids, from different maturity groups, tested in two infection conditions with Fusarium spp. (natural and artificial infections). The temperature and rainfalls of the four years of experiments corresponding to the vegetation of maize (april-september) are influenced favourably the pathogenesis of stalk and ear rot caused by Fusarium spp. and a good discrimination of the resistance reaction of genotypes. Fusarium ear rot has significantly affected production capacity and chemical composition of corn hybrids tested. In conditions of artificial infection with Fusarium spp. was a decrease in the content of starch, fat and increased protein content compared with artificially inoculated variants. The quantity of fumonizin B1+B2 has reached to 5630 μg/kg in conditions of artificial infection. There are negative correlations between production capacity and degree of attack of fusarium ear rot; depending on the reacting genotypes tested increasing disease causes production decrease. The response of maize hybrids to Fusarium infection is influenced by infection and climatic conditions. These factors affect production both in terms of quantity and quality and accumulation of mycotoxins.