Plant pathogens cause significant damage to plant products, compromising both quantities and quality. Even though many elements of agricultural practices are an integral part of reducing disease attacks, modern agriculture is still highly reliant on fungicides to guarantee high yields and product quality. The azoles, 14-alpha demethylase inhibitors, have been the fungicide class used most widely to control fungal plant diseases for more than four decades. More than 25 different azoles have been developed for the control of plant diseases in crops and the group has a world market value share of 20-25%. Azoles have proven to provide long-lasting control of many target plant pathogens and are categorized to have moderate risk for developing fungicide resistance. Field performances against many fungal pathogens have correspondingly been stable or only moderately reduced over time. Hence azoles are still, to date, considered the backbone in many control strategies and widely used as solo fungicides or as mixing partners with other fungicide groups, broadening the control spectrum as well as minimizing the overall risk of resistance development. This review describes the historic perspective of azoles, their market shares and importance for production of major crops like cereals, rice, oilseed rape, sugar beet, banana, citrus, and soybeans. In addition, information regarding use in amenity grass, in the wood preservation industry and as plant growth regulators are described. At the end of the review azoles are discussed in a wider context including future threats following stricter requirements for registration and potential impact on human health.

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Azole Use in Agriculture, Horticulture, and Wood Preservation - Is It Indispensable?

Septoria tritici blotch (STB) caused by the fungal pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici and powdery mildew (PM) caused by Blumeria graminis f.sp tritici (Bgt) are among the forefront foliar diseases of wheat that lead to a significant loss of grain yield and quality. Resistance breeding aimed at developing varieties with inherent resistance to STB and PM diseases has been the most sustainable and environment-friendly approach. In this study, 175 winter wheat landraces and historical cultivars originated from the Nordic region were evaluated for adult-plant resistance (APR) to STB and PM in Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, and Sweden. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) and genomic prediction (GP) were performed based on the adult-plant response to STB and PM in field conditions using 7,401 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers generated by 20K SNP chip. Genotype-by-environment interaction was significant for both disease scores. GWAS detected stable and environment-specific quantitative trait locis (QTLs) on chromosomes 1A, 1B, 1D, 2B, 3B, 4A, 5A, 6A, and 6B for STB and 2A, 2D, 3A, 4B, 5A, 6B, 7A, and 7B for PM adult-plant disease resistance. GP accuracy was improved when assisted with QTL from GWAS as a fixed effect. The GWAS-assisted GP accuracy ranged within 0.53-0.75 and 0.36-0.83 for STB and PM, respectively, across the tested environments. This study highlights that landraces and historical cultivars are a valuable source of APR to STB and PM. Such germplasm could be used to identify and introgress novel resistance genes to modern breeding lines.

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Genome-Wide Association Analysis and Genomic Prediction for Adult-Plant Resistance to Septoria Tritici Blotch and Powdery Mildew in Winter Wheat.

Risk models for decisions on fungicide use based on weather data, disease monitoring, and control thresholds are used as important elements in a sustainable cropping system. The need for control of leaf blotch diseases in wheat (caused by Zymoseptoria tritici, Parastagonospora nodorum and Pyrenophora tritici-repentis) vary significantly across years and locations. Disease development is mainly driven by humidity events during stem elongation and heading. Two risk models were tested in field trials in order to identify situations favourable for the development of leaf blotch diseases in Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The Crop Protection Online (CPO) model uses days with precipitation (>1 mm), while the humidity model (HM) uses 20 continuous hours with relative humidity (RH) ≥ 85% as criteria for the need of a fungicide application. Forty-seven field trials were carried out during two seasons to validate these two risk-models against reference fungicide treatments. The season 2018 was dry and 2019 had an average precipitation profile. The two risk models with few exceptions provided acceptable disease control. In 2018, very few treatments were recommended by the models, saving 85–98% of treatments compared to the reference treatments, while in the wetter season 2019, 31% fewer applications were recommended. Based on specific criteria including fungicide input and net yield responses the models gave correct recommendations in 95% of the trials in 2018 and in 54–58% of the trials in 2019 compared with reference treatments dominated by 2–3 sprays. In comparison with single spray references, the models gave correct recommendations in 54–69% of the situations.

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Validation of risk models for control of leaf blotch diseases in wheat in the Nordic and Baltic countries

Information about disease management in winter wheat (Triticum aestiva) in eight European countries was collated and analysed by scientists and extension workers within the European Network for the Durable Exploitation of Crop Protection Strategies (ENDURE). This included information about specific disease thresholds, decision support systems, host varieties, disease prevalence and pathogen virulence. Major differences in disease prevalence and economic importance were observed. Septoria tritici blotch (Mycosphaerella graminicola) was recognized as the most yield reducing disease in countries with intensive wheat production, but also rust diseases (Puccinia striiformis and Puccinia triticina), powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis) and Fusarium head blight (Fusarium spp.) were seen as serious disease problems. Examples of current integrated pest management (IPM) strategies in different countries have been reported. Disease management and fungicide use patterns showed major differences, with an average input equivalent to 2.3 full dose rates (TFI) in the UK and a TFI of 0.6 in Denmark. These differences are most likely due to a combination of different cropping systems, climatic differences, disease prevalence, and socio-economic factors. The web based information platform www.eurowheat.org was used for dissemination of information and results including information on control thresholds, cultural practices which can influence disease attack, fungicide efficacy, fungicide resistance, and pathogen virulence, which are all elements supporting IPM for disease control in wheat. The platform is open to all users. The target groups of Euro Wheat information are researchers, advisors, breeders, and similar partners dealing with disease management in wheat.

PM stragegies and their dilemmas including an introduction to www.eurowheat.org.

The effect of weeds, plant diseases and insect pests on spring barley (Hordeum vulgare) and spring wheat (Triticum aestivum) grain and nutrient yield was examined. Long-term field trial data was used to assess the impact of different pests on grain yield. In the absence of pesticides, fungal diseases caused the largest annual yield-reduction in spring wheat and spring barley, 500 kg ha−1 on average. Converting yield loss to nutrient yield loss this represented reductions of 8.1 and 9.2 kg ha−1 in nitrogen and 1.5 and 1.6 kg ha−1 in phosphorus, respectively. Likewise, it was estimated that weeds decrease the yield of spring barley and spring wheat for 200 kg ha−1, which means reductions of 3.7 and 3.2 kg ha−1 in nitrogen and 0.6 kg ha−1 in phosphorus, respectively. For insect pests yield-reduction in spring barley and spring wheat varied between 418 and 745 kg ha−1 respectively. However, because bird cherry-oat aphid (Rhopalosiphum padi L.) incidence data was limited, and aphids are highly variable annually, nutrient yield losses caused by insect pests were not included. Based on the current study, the management of weeds, plant diseases and insects maintain cereal crop yield and may thus decrease the environmental risks caused by unutilized nutrients.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/11/3/592/pdf

Impact of Pests on Cereal Grain and Nutrient Yield in Boreal Growing Conditions

Fungal plant diseases driven by weather factors are common in European wheat and barley crops. Among these, septoria tritici blotch (Zymoseptoria tritici), tan spot (Pyrenophora tritici-repentis), and stagonospora nodorum blotch (Parastagonospora nodorum) are common in the Nordic-Baltic region at variable incidence and severity both in spring and winter wheat fields. In spring barley, net blotch (Pyrenophora teres), scald (Rhynchosporium graminicola, syn. Rhynchosporium commune) and ramularia leaf spot (Ramularia collo-cygni) are common yield limiting foliar diseases. We analysed data from 449 field trials from 2007 to 2017 in wheat and barley crops in the Nordic-Baltic region and explored the differences in severity of leaf blotch diseases between countries and years, and the impact of the diseases on yield. In the experiments, septoria tritici blotch dominated in winter wheat in Denmark and southern Sweden; while in Lithuania, both septoria tritici blotch and tan spot were common. In spring wheat, stagonospora nodorum blotch dominated in Norway and tan spot in Finland. Net blotch and ramularia leaf blotch were the most severe barley diseases over large areas, while scald occurred more locally and had less yield impact in all countries. Leaf blotch diseases, with severity >50% at DC 73–77, caused an average yield loss of 1072 kg/ha in winter wheat and 1114 kg/ha in spring barley across all countries over 5 years. These data verify a large regional and yearly variation in disease severity, distribution and impact on yield, emphasizing the need to adapt fungicide applications to the actual need based on locally adapted risk assessment systems.

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Jens-Erik Ørum

Papers

Yield increases due to fungicide control of leaf blotch diseases in wheat and barley as a basis for IPM decision-making in the Nordic-Baltic region