Degani Ofir, Gordani Asaf, Becher Paz, Chen Assaf, Rabinovitz Onn
Plant Sciences Department, 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). 2022 May 30;8(6):586. doi: 10.3390/jof8060586.
In recent years, worldwide scientific efforts towards controlling maize late wilt disease (LWD) have focused on eco-friendly approaches that minimize the environmental impact and health risks. This disease is considered to be the most severe threat to maize fields in Israel and Egypt, and a major growth restraint in India, Spain, and Portugal. Today's most commonly used method for LWD control involving resistant maize genotypes is under constant risk from aggressive pathogen lines. Thus, this study's objectives were to evaluate the effect of crop rotation and avoiding tillage on restraining the disease. Such an agrotechnical approach will support the continuity of soil mycorrhiza networks, which antagonize the disease's causal agent, . The method gained positive results in previous studies, but many knowledge gaps still need to be addressed. To this end, a dual-season study was conducted using the LWD hyper-susceptible maize hybrid, Megaton cv. The trials were performed in a greenhouse and in the field over full dual-growth seasons (wheat or clover as the winter crop followed by maize as the summer crop). In the greenhouse under LWD stress, the results clearly demonstrate the beneficial effect of maize crop rotation with clover and wheat on plant weight (1.4-fold), height (1.1-1.2-fold) and cob yield (1.8-2.4-fold), especially in the no-till soil. The clover-maize growth sequence excels in reducing disease impact (1.7-fold) and pathogen spread in the host tissues (3-fold). Even though the wheat-maize crop cycle was less effective, it still had better results than the commercial mycorrhizal preparation treatment and the uncultivated non-infected soil. The results were slightly different in the field. The clover-maize rotation also achieved the best growth promotion and disease restraint results (2.6-fold increase in healthy plants), but the maize rotation with wheat showed only minor efficiency. Interestingly, pre-cultivating the soil with clover had better results in no-till soil in both experiments. In contrast, the same procedure with wheat had a better impact when tillage was applied. It may be concluded that crop rotation and soil cultivation can be essential in reducing LWD, but other factors may affect this approach's benefits in commercial field growth.
近年来，全球在控制玉米后期枯萎病（LWD）方面的科研工作聚焦于生态友好型方法，以尽量减少对环境的影响和健康风险。这种病害被认为是对以色列和埃及玉米田最严重的威胁，也是印度、西班牙和葡萄牙玉米生长的主要限制因素。目前最常用的利用抗性玉米基因型控制LWD的方法，持续面临来自具有侵袭性的病原菌系的风险。因此，本研究的目的是评估轮作和免耕对抑制该病的效果。这种农业技术方法将有助于土壤菌根网络的连续性，而菌根网络可拮抗该病的病原菌。该方法在以往研究中取得了积极成果，但仍有许多知识空白需要填补。为此，使用对LWD高度敏感的玉米杂交种Megaton cv进行了为期两季的研究。试验在温室和田间进行，历经完整的两季生长季节（冬季作物为小麦或三叶草，随后夏季作物为玉米）。在温室中LWD胁迫条件下，结果清楚地表明玉米与三叶草和小麦轮作对植株重量（1.4倍）、株高（1.1 - 1.2倍）和穗产量（1.8 - 2.4倍）具有有益影响，尤其是在免耕土壤中。三叶草 - 玉米生长序列在降低病害影响（1.7倍）和病原菌在寄主组织中的传播（3倍）方面表现出色。尽管小麦 - 玉米作物周期效果较差，但仍比商业菌根制剂处理和未耕种的未感染土壤效果更好。田间结果略有不同。三叶草 - 玉米轮作也取得了最佳的生长促进和病害抑制效果（健康植株增加2.6倍），但玉米与小麦轮作仅显示出较小的效果。有趣的是，在两个试验中，用三叶草预先耕种土壤在免耕土壤中效果更好。相反，对小麦进行相同操作在进行耕作时效果更佳。可以得出结论，轮作和土壤耕作对于减少LWD可能至关重要，但其他因素可能会影响这种方法在商业田间种植中的效益。
