HomePlant DiseaseVol. 104, No. 10First Report of Fusarium Head Blight Caused by Fusarium meridionale in Rice in China PreviousNext DISEASE NOTES OPENOpen Access licenseFirst Report of Fusarium Head Blight Caused by Fusarium meridionale in Rice in ChinaFei Dong, Jian Hong Xu, Jian Rong Shi, Mduduzi P. Mokoena, Ademola O. Olaniran, Xin Yuan Chen, and Yin-Won LeeFei Donghttp://orcid.org/0000-0003-0435-5477Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety - State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base, Ministry of Science and Technology/Key Laboratory for Control Technology and Standard for Agro-product Safety and Quality, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Key Laboratory for Agro-product Safety Risk Evaluation (Nanjing), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Grain Circulation and Safety/Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, ChinaSchool of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban X54001, South AfricaSearch for more papers by this author, Jian Hong Xu†Corresponding authors: J. H. Xu; E-mail Address: xujianhongnj@126.com and J. R. Shi; E-mail Address: jianrong63@126.comJiangsu Key Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety - State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base, Ministry of Science and Technology/Key Laboratory for Control Technology and Standard for Agro-product Safety and Quality, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Key Laboratory for Agro-product Safety Risk Evaluation (Nanjing), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Grain Circulation and Safety/Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, ChinaSearch for more papers by this author, Jian Rong Shi†Corresponding authors: J. H. Xu; E-mail Address: xujianhongnj@126.com and J. R. Shi; E-mail Address: jianrong63@126.comJiangsu Key Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety - State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base, Ministry of Science and Technology/Key Laboratory for Control Technology and Standard for Agro-product Safety and Quality, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Key Laboratory for Agro-product Safety Risk Evaluation (Nanjing), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Grain Circulation and Safety/Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, ChinaSchool of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban X54001, South AfricaCollege of Marine Life and Fisheries, Jiangsu Ocean University, Lianyungang 222005, ChinaSearch for more papers by this author, Mduduzi P. MokoenaSchool of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban X54001, South AfricaSearch for more papers by this author, Ademola O. OlaniranSchool of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban X54001, South AfricaSearch for more papers by this author, Xin Yuan ChenCollege of Marine Life and Fisheries, Jiangsu Ocean University, Lianyungang 222005, ChinaSearch for more papers by this author, and Yin-Won Leehttp://orcid.org/0000-0002-9652-4102Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of KoreaSearch for more papers by this authorAffiliationsAuthors and Affiliations Fei Dong1 2 Jian Hong Xu1 † Jian Rong Shi1 2 3 † Mduduzi P. Mokoena2 Ademola O. Olaniran2 Xin Yuan Chen3 Yin-Won Lee4 1Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety - State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base, Ministry of Science and Technology/Key Laboratory for Control Technology and Standard for Agro-product Safety and Quality, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Key Laboratory for Agro-product Safety Risk Evaluation (Nanjing), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Grain Circulation and Safety/Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China 2School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban X54001, South Africa 3College of Marine Life and Fisheries, Jiangsu Ocean University, Lianyungang 222005, China 4Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea Published Online:20 Aug 2020https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-11-19-2487-PDNAboutSectionsSupplemental ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailWechat Members of the Fusarium graminearum species complex (FGSC), including F. asiaticum and F. graminearum, have been reported to cause Fusarium head blight (FHB) in rice in Jiangsu Province, China (Dong et al. 2019, 2020). In October 2018, a survey of 42 fields in eight counties of Sichuan Province, with a rice-growing area of 1.9 million hectares and an annual yield of approximately 15 million tons, was conducted to understand the etiology of FHB in rice. Rice samples with the symptoms of dark staining or browning of rice glumes were collected from the fields. Symptomatic seeds were soaked in 3% sodium hypochlorite for 2 min, rinsed three times in sterilized distilled water, and placed onto potato dextrose agar medium with tetracycline sulfate. After 5 days of incubation at 25°C in the dark (Wang et al. 2015), fungal colonies displaying morphological characteristics of Fusarium spp. were purified by transferring single spores and identified to species by morphological characteristics and DNA sequence analysis of the partial translation elongation factor 1 alpha (TEF) gene (Leslie and Summerell 2006; Zhang et al. 2014). The results showed that F. asiaticum and F. graminearum were the predominant fungi in rice in Sichuan Province. However, one isolate from Weiyuan County (29.6492444 N; 104.5417055 E) was identified as Fusarium meridionale with the nivalenol (NIV) chemotype, a species in the FGSC. This isolate had a radial growth rate of 15.2 to 19.7 mm/day at 25°C in the dark, produced abundant brown aerial mycelium, and formed red pigments. After 5 days of incubation in liquid mung bean medium at 25°C, moderately curved or straight macroconidia, with three to six septa, 20.3 to 38.2 μm in length, and 2.3 to 3.8 μm in width were observed. No microconidia were observed. BLASTn analysis of the TEF amplicon (GenBank accession no. MN629330) revealed more than 99% sequence identity with F. meridionale. A pathogenicity test was conducted with the rice variety Nanjing 9108. A 1-ml macroconidia suspension (1 × 105 spores/ml) was spray inoculated onto each of 10 rice spikes at the midanthesis stage. Control plants were inoculated with sterile distilled water. The proportion of diseased seed in the rice heads was evaluated at 7, 10, 14, and 21 days after inoculation. Symptoms of FHB were observed on inoculated rice spikes. The isolate caused 34.2% of spikes infected, with an area under the disease progress curve of 281. No symptoms were observed on the water-treated controls. The same fungus was reisolated from the infected plants but not from the water-treated controls. In addition, the fungus produced a trace amount of NIV (136 μg/kg). F. meridionale has been reported to cause maize ear rot in China and FHB of wheat in Mexico (Ceron-Bustamante et al. 2016; Zhang et al. 2014). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of F. meridionale causing FHB in rice in China.The author(s) declare no conflict of interest.