Evaluation of full-season programs for the management of Fusarium wilt of blackberry caused by a new lineage of the Fusarium oxysporum species complex
Introduction
Blackberry wilt is currently the most critical disease impacting the crop in Mexico. It has also been reported in patented blackberry cultivars in California, USA (Gordon et al., 2016). Recently, Pastrana et al. (2017) proposed a new forma specialis of Fusarium oxysporum associated with blackberry, based on isolates collected from proprietary blackberry cultivars obtained in California, USA, and Mexico.
In Mexico, the cultivar ‘Tupy’ (a patent-free variety) is widely cultivated by growers, mostly in the state of Michoacán. Wilt symptoms on blackberry were first observed in 2010 in the municipality of Los Reyes. Since then, the symptoms have been observed in different areas of the state as well, and in other Central and Northern states of Mexico such as Guanajuato, Jalisco, and Baja California (Rebollar-Alviter unpublished). The disease has attracted the attention of producers because of its destructive capacity and the difficulty for its management. F. oxysporum has been consistently isolated from the vascular tissue of blackberries based on the presence of these symptoms; however, pathogenicity tests have not been completed.
The management of diseases caused by F. oxysporum in crops such as tomatoes, bananas, and strawberries has focused mainly on applying preventive measures aimed at reducing the primary inoculum and its efficiency through the use of several different practices including soil fumigation, solarization, anaerobic soil disinfestation and other preplanting soil treatments (Nel et al., 2007; Amini and Sidovich, 2010; Koike and Gordon, 2015). Also, breeding for genetic resistance has been the most important strategy for managing Fusarium wilts of different crops (Elmer, 2015; Gordon, 2017). These actions have been complemented with other tactics such as chemical, biological and plant resistance inducers during crop development. In this integral approach, biocontrol agents such as Trichoderma spp. and beneficial bacteria play a crucial role by promoting a series of positive responses in the plants, ultimately resulting in improvement of plant health through different mechanisms of action (Harman et al., 2004; Vinale et al., 2008; Shoresh et al., 2010). These mechanisms can be effective in the management of some root diseases (Thangavelu et al., 2004; Dubey et al., 2007). However, commercial formulation based on Streptomyces spp., Bacillus subtilis, Burkholderia cepacia, and T. harzianum, when applied as preventive treatments, have not provided sufficient efficacy to reduce the intensity of wilts caused by F. oxysporum in crops such as cyclamen (Elmer and Mc Govern, 2004). On the other hand, the use of fungicides such as prochloraz and difenoconazole have shown promising results against F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici in tomato (Song et al., 2004; Amini and Sidovich, 2010), against F. oxysporum f. sp. fragariae on strawberry (Caihua et al., 2009) and against F. oxysporum in potato (Gachango et al., 2012). Additionally, benzimidazole fungicides such as thiophanate-methyl (Chung et al., 2009) and thiabendazole (Gachango et al., 2012) have also been inhibitory against F. oxysporum.
Management of root diseases in crops such as blackberries represents a challenge because of the perennial nature of the crop and due to its management under a forced production system. In this system, plants are mowed down and after a period of 5–6 months of vegetative growth, the plants are pruned, chemically defoliated and the buds are stimulated by hormone spraying in order to promote blooming. Management of the disease has not been achieved under this system. In this research, we hypothesized that a member of the F. oxysporum species complex is the causal agent of wilt of blackberry plants in Mexico. We also hypothesized that despite the perennial nature of the crop, it would be possible to design integrated disease management programs that begin very early in the season (after the mow down), allowing for postponing or reduction of disease severity in commercial crops through the integration of technologies (fungicides, microbial inoculants, and plant resistance inducers) throughout the whole season. The objectives of this research were: a) to determine the etiology of the wilt of blackberry plants in Mexico, and b) to evaluate full-season strategies for the integrated management of the disease in commercial blackberry crops. The results of this study will contribute to the development of an integrated wilt management program in blackberry crops and contribute to reducing the economic and social impact of this disease in blackberry producing regions.
Section snippets
Sampling of symptomatic plants and fungal isolations
During the 2013 to 2014 production season in the Los Reyes municipality, roots, crowns and stems of blackberry plants cv ‘Tupy’ that showed progressive yellowing of the leaves, a dark brown stripe running from base to the top of the plant and withering of the plant were collected from 13 commercial plots. In the lab, the tissue was washed with tap water and 0.5 cm sections were taken from the vascular tissue of roots, crown, and stems. Sections were soaked in 1% sodium hypochlorite for 1 min,
Etiology of wilt of blackberry
Morphological studies indicated that isolates obtained from blackberry plants showing yellowing and wilt symptoms corresponded to the F. oxysporum species complex based on the characteristics described by Leslie and Summerell (2006). The phylogenetic analysis consisted of 25 taxa and 618 characters, including type sequences of the new species in the F. oxysporum complex resolved by Lombard et al. (2019). Both ML and BI analyses generated similar topology trees (standard deviation of split
Discussion
Blackberries are currently one of the most important berry crops in Mexico and represent the base of the growers' economy in some of the central regions in Mexico. The results of this research on the disease etiology of blackberry wilt, indicated that a new lineage of F. oxysporum species complex is the causal agent of the wilt of blackberry cv ‘Tupy’ in Mexico based on GCPSR criteria. This lineage was previously isolated from the blackberry cultivar BY48.1 in this area, along with others, and
Conclusions
The results of this research confirmed that the causal agent of the wilt of blackberry crops is a new lineage of the Fusarium oxysporum species complex. The evaluation of different strategies to manage the disease in a commercial crop indicated that the programs that contributed to a more consistent effect on disease management while maintaining the general health of the plants in a two-year experiment were those based on continuous applications (season-long) of the microbial soil inoculant
CRediT authorship contribution statement
A. Hernández-Cruz: Methodology, Investigation, Writing - original draft. A. Saldivia-Tejeda: Methodology, Investigation, Writing - original draft. H.V. Silva-Rojas: Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft. D. Fuentes-Aragón: Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft. C. Nava-Díaz: Methodology. L. Martínez-Bolaños: Methodology. A. Rebollar-Alviter: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Resources, Writing - original draft, Writing - review &
Declaration of competing interest
Authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the project No. 2015-03-264756 of the Fondo Sectorial SAGARPA-CONACYT, allocated to Universidad Autónoma Chapingo. Centro Regional Morelia. Morelia, Mexico.
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2021, International Journal of Agriculture and Biology