Degani Ofir, Dor Shlomit, Chen Assaf, Orlov-Levin Valerie, Stolov-Yosef Avital, Regev Danielle, Rabinovitz Onn
MIGAL-Galilee Research Institute, Tarshish 2, Kiryat Shmona 11016, Israel.
Faculty of Sciences, Tel-Hai College, Upper Galilee, Tel-Hai 12210, Israel.
J Fungi (Basel). 2020 Apr 27;6(2):54. doi: 10.3390/jof6020054.
Late wilt is a destructive disease of corn: outbreaks occur at the advanced growth stage and lead to severe dehydration of susceptible hybrids. The disease's causal agent is the fungus , whose spread relies on infested soils, seeds, and several alternative hosts. The current study aimed at advancing our understanding of the nature of this plant disease and revealing new ways to monitor and control it. Two field experiments were conducted in a heavily infested area in northern Israel seeded with highly sensitive corn hybrid. The first experiment aimed at inspecting the Azoxystrobin (AS) fungicide applied by spraying during and after the land tillage. Unexpectedly, the disease symptoms in this field were minor and yields were high. Nevertheless, up to 100% presence of the pathogen within the plant's tissues was measured using the quantitative real-time PCR method. The highest AS concentration tested was the most effective treatment, and resulted in a 6% increase in cob yield and a 4% increase in A-class yield. In the second experiment conducted in the following summer of the same year in a nearby field, the disease outbreak was dramatically higher, with about 350 times higher levels of the pathogen DNA in the untreated plots' plants. In this field, fungicide mixtures were applied using a dripline assigned for two coupling rows. The most successful treatment was AS and the Difenoconazole mixture, in which the number of infected plants decreased by 79%, and a 116% increase in crop yield was observed, along with a 41% increase in crop quality. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the treatments on the plants' health using a remote, thermal infra-red sensitive camera supported the results and proved to be an essential research tool.
该病在生长后期爆发，会导致易感杂交品种严重脱水。该病的病原体是一种真菌，其传播依赖于受侵染的土壤、种子和几种替代寄主。当前的研究旨在增进我们对这种植物病害本质的理解，并揭示监测和控制它的新方法。在以色列北部一个病害严重的地区进行了两项田间试验，种植的是高度敏感的玉米杂交品种。第一个试验旨在检查在土地耕作期间和之后通过喷雾施用的嘧菌酯（AS）杀菌剂。出乎意料的是，该地块的病害症状较轻且产量较高。然而，使用定量实时PCR方法测得植物组织内病原体的存在率高达100%。测试的最高AS浓度是最有效的处理方法，使穗轴产量提高了6%，A级产量提高了4%。在同年夏天在附近一块田地进行的第二项试验中，病害爆发程度显著更高，未处理地块的植物中病原体DNA水平高出约350倍。在这块田地中，使用分配给两行耦合行的滴灌带施用杀菌剂混合物。最成功的处理方法是AS和苯醚甲环唑混合物，其中感染植株数量减少了79%，作物产量提高了116%，作物品质提高了41%。使用远程热红外敏感相机评估处理对植物健康的有效性支持了这些结果，并证明是一种重要的研究工具。
