Abstract
Durum wheat, one of the most relevant sources of food worldwide, is susceptible to the attack of fungal pathogens responsible for different severe diseases. Specifically, Fusarium Foot Rot (FRR) and Fusarium Crown Rot (FCR) are spread all over the world and the main causal agents belong to Fusarium and Microdochium genera. They can act affecting the roots, the crown and the first internodal portions of the stem base. In addition, this fungal genus is pathogenic also at the spike level, causing Fusarium Head Blight (FHB), responsible for quantitative damage, due to a yield decrease, and qualitative damage due to grain contamination by mycotoxins such as trichothecenes. Nowadays the main management strategies against these diseases are based on agronomic practices and fungicide applications. More sustainable management methods, focused on reducing the use of synthetic agrochemicals to preserve the environment as well as operators’ and consumers’ health, are therefore necessary. Innovative strategies may involve the use of antagonistic microorganisms, applied directly to the plants or to the seed in the form of a coating. In the last years, the research group proposing this project has imple-mented the isolation and selection of microbial strains from different agriculture environments and from the wheat rhizosphere, with the aim to identify possible antagonistic microorganisms to FCR and FHB agents. Preliminary tests performed in vitro based on bacteria belonging to the genera Lactobacillus, Bacillus, Paenibacillus, Pseudomonas and Microbacterium, allowed the identification strains showing promising results in counteracting FCR. However, many gaps in the application of selected strains were identified, spanning from antimicrobial peptides pro-duction, microorganisms’ safety and growth performance to an efficient and economically sus-tainable application of seed coating. Moreover, little is known about endophytic bacteria's ca-pability to counteract FCR and FHB on durum wheat as well as the mycotoxins contaminations in the spike. For these reasons, the final goal of this project is to fill the knowledge gaps to achieve industrial production coupled with a wide-scale application of the select antagonistic strains in the Fusarium diseases management of durum wheat, for a better quality of raw ma-terials, food and for the health of soil, nature and people. Furthermore, the formulation of cul-ture media for the growth of the antagonistic microbial strains valorizing waste and by-products in the agro-food sector will be also developed. The project will be carried out by two Research Units (RUs) belonging to the University of Bologna (UNIBO) and the University of Pe-rugia (UNIPG), both with consolidated experience in the microbial characterization, microorgan-isms manipulation and management of FCR and FHB of durum wheat.
Project details
Unibo Team Leader: Antonio Prodi
Unibo involved Department/s:
Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Agro-Alimentari
Coordinator:
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - Università di Bologna(Italy)
Total Eu Contribution: Euro (EUR) 224.750,00
Total Unibo Contribution: Euro (EUR) 123.750,00
Project Duration in months: 24
Start Date:
30/11/2023
End Date:
30/11/2025
