Interaction between mycotoxin producing fusarium species in different oat cultivars

Oat is the third most important cereal crop in Sweden and Fusarium head blight (FHB) disease makes the oat grain incompatible for animal and human consumption by producing secondary metabolites called mycotoxins.T-2, HT-2 and deoxynivalenol (DON) are the most common mycotoxins in oats produced by Fusarium spp. In this experiment, eight cultivars of oat plants were inoculated with F. langsethiae and/or F. graminearum and grown in a growth chamber. The Fusarium infection were quantified by using real time PCR and T-2 and DON concentrations were determined by using enzyme immunoassay. The result demonstrates that infection level varied for F. langsethiae. In some oat cultivars there was a higher infection level of F. langsethiae when this species were single inoculated and for some cultivars the infection of F. langsethiae was more severe when co-inoculated with F. graminearum. The same pattern is also true for F. graminearum. The amount of F. graminearum DNA and the DON concentration were strongly correlated (r = 0.618, P=0.00) as were the correlation between the amount of F. langsethiae DNA and T-2 toxin (P=0.002, r = 0.517)