Comparative Performances of Beneficial Microorganisms on the Induction of Durum Wheat Tolerance to Fusarium Head Blight

Zayneb Kthiri; Maissa Ben Jabeur; Kalthoum Harbaoui; Chahine Karmous; Zoubeir Chamekh; Fadia Chairi; Maria Dolores Serret; Jose Luis Araus; Walid Hamada

doi:10.3390/microorganisms9122410

Comparative Performances of Beneficial Microorganisms on the Induction of Durum Wheat Tolerance to Fusarium Head Blight

Microorganisms. 2021 Nov 23;9(12):2410. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms9122410.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Genetics and Cereals Breeding, National Institute of Agronomy of Tunisia, Carthage University, Tunis 1082, Tunisia.
² High School of Agriculture of Mateur, Department of Plant Sciences, Carthage University, Mateur 7030, Tunisia.
³ National Institute of Agricultural Research of Tunisia, Field Crop, Carthage University, Tunis 2049, Tunisia.
⁴ Integrative Crop Ecophysiology Group, Plant Physiology Section, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
⁵ AGROTECNIO (Center of Research in Agrotechnology), University of Lleida, 25198 Lleida, Spain.

Abstract

Durum wheat production is seriously threatened by Fusarium head blight (FHB) attacks in Tunisia, and the seed coating by bio-agents is a great alternative for chemical disease control. This study focuses on evaluating, under field conditions, the effect of seed coating with Trichoderma harzianum, Meyerozyma guilliermondii and their combination on (i) FHB severity, durum wheat grain yield and TKW in three crop seasons, and (ii) on physiological parameters and the carbon and nitrogen content and isotope composition in leaves and grains of durum wheat. The results indicated that the treatments were effective in reducing FHB severity by 30 to 70% and increasing grain yield with an increased rate ranging from 25 to 68%, compared to the inoculated control. The impact of treatments on grain yield improvement was associated with higher NDVI and chlorophyll content and lower canopy temperature. Furthermore, the treatments mitigated the FHB adverse effects on N and C metabolism by resulting in a higher δ¹³Cgrain (¹³C/¹²Cgrain) and δ¹⁵Ngrain (¹⁵N/¹⁴Ngrain). Overall, the combination outperformed the other seed treatments by producing the highest grain yield and TKW. The high potency of seed coating with the combination suggests that the two microorganisms have synergetic or complementary impacts on wheat.

Keywords: Fusarium head blight; bioagents; durum wheat; grain yield; isotope.