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Postharvest Pathology and Mycotoxins

Toxigenic Fusarium Species Found in Roots and Rhizospheres of Baccharis Species From Brazil. Thor Kommedahl, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108; H. K. Abbas(2), C. J. Mirocha(3), G. A. Bean(4), B. B. Jarvis(5), and Mao-di Guo(6). (2)(3)Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108; (4)(5)(6)Departments of Botany and Chemistry, University of Maryland, College Park 20742. Phytopathology 77:584-588. Accepted for publication 3 October 1986. Copyright 1987 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-77-584.

Fusarium species were more abundant in the rhizosphere than in roots or soil of Baccharis species collected in southern Brazil. Fusarium sporotrichioides occurred more abundantly in roots and rhizospheres than in soil surrounding roots. More Fusarim species were isolated from B. coridifolia than from four other Baccharis species. Thirty-nine isolates of F. oxysporum and 42 of F. sporotrichioides from roots, rhizospheres, and soil of Baccharis species, grown on rice substrate and fed to rats in a 1:1 mixture with rat ration, caused below-normal weight gains, and 18 of the isolates of the two Fusarium species were lethal to rats in a 5-day test. T-2 toxin was produced by three isolates of F. sporotrichioides.