Biological suppression of the saprophytic growth of Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici in soil

Abstract

The biological suppression of the saprophytic growth of Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici in soil in the absence of host roots appeared to be related to suppression of take-all disease of wheat seedlings. When soil collected from a plot which in 1984 and 1985 had grown wheat continuously for 7 and 8 years, respectively, was added at a level of 1% (w/w) to the same soil treated by γ-radiation, saprophytic growth of pigmented hyphae of G. graminis var. tritici on a filter membrane in a soil sandwich was suppressed relative to that occurring in irradiated soil. A soil of the same type from an adjacent area with a history of cereal–pasture alternate rotation did not significantly suppress saprophytic growth of G. graminis var. tritici. Biological suppression of disease of wheat caused by G. graminis var. tritici was tested in a pot bioassay by adding the same two soils, collected in 1985, at a level of 1% (w/w) to fumigated sand infested with oat kernels axenically colonized by the pathogen. Disease severity, measured as the percentage of the seminal root axes with discoloured stele, was reduced by 42 and 6% with the addition of continuous wheat and cereal–pasture rotation soils, respectively, to infested sand, compared with disease severity in unamended, infested sand alone.