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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Pathogen Interactions
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1461896
This article is part of the Research Topic Insights In Plant-Pathogen Interactions: 2023 View all 15 articles

Stalks and roots are the main battlefield for the coevolution between maize and Fusarium verticillioides

Provisionally accepted
Xuanjun Feng Xuanjun Feng 1,2*Hao Xiong Hao Xiong 3Xiaobin Xing Xiaobin Xing 3Muyuan Liu Muyuan Liu 3Zhaoyu Zhang Zhaoyu Zhang 1Qingjun Wang Qingjun Wang 3Xuemei Zhang Xuemei Zhang 3Xiangjian Gou Xiangjian Gou 4Yanli Lu Yanli Lu 1
  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Exploration and Utilization in Southwest China, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
  • 2 Maize Research Institute of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China
  • 3 Maize Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China
  • 4 National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Fusarium species are the dominant cause of maize ear rot, but they also inflict serious damage to the roots and stalks. Theoretically, the organ where the host interacts with the pathogen most frequently should exhibit the highest degree of symptom-genotype correlation. Because that symptom-genotype correlation is an indicator reflecting the degree of coevolution between pathogen and its hosts. We wonder which organ is the main battlefield for the antagonism between maize and Fusarium. For this purpose, 43 isolates of Fusarium were isolated from infected maize ears. Fusarium verticillioides and F. graminearum are the two dominant pathogens, accounting for 44% and 30%, respectively. Furthermore, 14 elite maize inbreds were exposed to 43 Fusarium isolates and the symptoms of ear rot, stalk rot and root rot were investigated. In general, symptoms caused by F. graminearum were significantly more severe than those caused by other Fusarium species. Surprisingly, the genotype of F. verticillioides showed a strong correlation with stalk and root rot, but not with ear rot.Accordingly, our study may provide the first evidence that the stalk and root of maize, rather than the ear, is the main battlefield for the coevolution between maize and F. verticillioides.

    Keywords: pathogen-host interaction, Coevolution, Maize, Fusarium, ear rot

    Received: 09 Jul 2024; Accepted: 25 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Feng, Xiong, Xing, Liu, Zhang, Wang, Zhang, Gou and Lu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Xuanjun Feng, State Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Exploration and Utilization in Southwest China, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, Sichuan Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.