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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Mycotoxin Prevention and Applied Microbiology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #335648
Research Project: Novel Methods for Controlling Trichothecene Contamination of Grain and Improving the Climate Resilience of Food Safety and Security Programs

Location: Mycotoxin Prevention and Applied Microbiology Research

Title: Effects of elevated [CO2] on the defense response of wheat against Fusarium graminearum infection

Author
item Vaughan, Martha
item CUPERLOVIC-CULF, MIROSLAVE - National Research Council - Canada
item Hao, Guixia
item Vermillion, Karl
item McCormick, Susan

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/6/2016
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Fusarium head blight (FHB) is one of the world’s most devastating wheat diseases, and results in significant yield loss and contamination of grain with harmful mycotoxins called trichothecenes. Despite emerging risks of increased mycotoxin contamination in food and feed associated with climate change, little is known about how rising [CO2] will influence natural wheat resistance mechanisms against Fusarium graminearum, the primary etiological agent of FHB. In this study the defense response of wheat plants grown at ambient (400 ppm) [CO2] and elevated (800 ppm) [CO2] was evaluated and compared. The timing and magnitude of the phytohormone defense response was different at elevated [CO2]. Additionally, pathogenesis-related (PR) and lipoxygenase (LOX) gene transcript levels and metabolite concentrations were altered. Our results suggest that elevated [CO2] reconfigures the defense response of wheat leading to changes in susceptibility to FHB and mycotoxin contamination.