2018/02/20 by Marc-Antoine Cannesan, Cannesan, Marc-Antoine, Véronique Edel‐Hermann +7
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Plant Pathogens and Fungal Diseases #Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions #Plant-Microbe Interactions and Immunity
paper · doi:10.15454/1.5191191878882002e12
Fusarium wilt of cyclamen is one of the most damaging diseases of cyclamen caused by the soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cyclaminis. This disease leads to the death of cyclamens. Losses can reach more than 50% of the production. Presently no methods for fusarium control are available. In this context, a project was developed in collaboration with ASTREDHOR the French institute of horticulture, INRA of Dijon and the company Agrene. The project had two goals: i) designing a Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cyclaminis specific molecular marker allowing to detect the disease, and ii) identifying efficient biological control agents. A specific molecular marker was identified by random amplified polymorphic DNA within a collection of strains representative of F. oxysporum f. sp. cyclaminis diversity. A specific primer pairs was designed and validated on a large multi-taxa collection of fungal strains. This pair of primers specifically detects the pathogenic fungus in the plant regardless of its phenological stage or in the substrate and the fertilization solution, making it a powerful molecular tool for prophylaxis and early diagnosis. Alongside, greenhouse bioassays were performed to test putative bacterial and fungal biocontrol agents (BCA), alone or in combination. Two products were selected for the ability to reduce the disease but validation is required before they are used in production.