Effect of certain herbicides on growth and pathogenicity of take-all fungus on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Summary The effects of Spray Seed (diquat + paraquat), Roundup (glyphosate), Banvel-D (dicamba), Treflan (trifluralin), Glean (chlorsulfuron) and Dacthal (chlorthal dimethyl) at concentrations of 0–500 ppm product on the vegetative growth, vigour and pathogenicity of Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici (Ggt) on wheat were examined. All herbicides with the exception of dicamba and chlorsulfuron inhibited fungal growth on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at concentrations 10–500-fold of rates recommended for use in the field. The vegetative growth of the pathogen growing out of straw colonized on PDA supplemented with 100 ppm diquat + paraquat or glyphosate was reduced by 47.4% and 42.4%, respectively. When portions of these colonies were subcultured onto unamended PDA, their growth and the pathogenicity of straw pieces colonized by these subcultures were found to be unaltered. Straw colonized by Ggt on agar amended with concentrations of diquat + paraquat or at all concentrations of glyphosate produced less root disease in wheat seedlings in comparison to those colonized on unamended agar. It is proposed that the reduced pathogenicity of inocula prepared on agar amended with these two herbicides is due to poor colonization by the pathogen of straw on these media, and that a similar effect on saprophytic colonization in the field could lead to a reduction in the field inocula of the pathogen.