Abbeah Mae Navasca
Graduate Research Assistant
North Dakota State University
Fargo, North Dakota, United States
Viviana Rivera-Varas
Research Assistant, Department of Plant Pathology
North Dakota State University
Fargo, North Dakota, United States
Jatinder Singh, n/a
PhD. Candidate
North Dakota State University
Fargo, North Dakota, United States
Harry Navasca
Laboratory Assistant, Department of Plant Pathology
North Dakota State University
Fargo, North Dakota, United States
Megan Orr
Associate Professor, Department of Statistics
North Dakota State University
Fargo, North Dakota, United States
Christopher Toomajian
Associate Professor, Department of Plant Pathology
Kansas State University
Manhattan, Kansas, United States
Gary Secor
Professor, Department of Plant Pathology
North Dakota State University
Fargo, North Dakota, United States
Thomas Baldwin, n/a
Assistant Professor
North Dakota State University
Fargo, North Dakota, United States
Fusarium graminearum primarily causes the devastating disease Fusarium head blight, leading to economic loss of small grains, including barley. The primary threat is the production of trichothecene toxins, particularly deoxynivalenol (DON), posing significant risks to human and animal health once ingested. Crop rotation is a sustainable management strategy widely adopted in North Dakota for managing several pests and pathogens. However, crop residues can harbor pathogens like F. graminearum, serving as inoculum sources for subsequent crops. Although F. graminearum is a cereal fungal pathogen, it is reported to cause dry rot in potatoes and root rot in soybeans. The pathogen is adapted to different crops and has been shown to preferentially exhibit host-dependent gene expression in cereals such as maize, wheat, and barley, making crop rotation insufficient for disease management. We hypothesize that apart from its preferences between cereals, F. graminearum also has a preference for non-cereal crops in a rotation system. To study this, we cross-infected F. graminearum isolates from barley, potato, soybean, and winter rye onto barley, potato, and soybean. Our recent experiments show that F. graminearum isolates from potato and barley cause similar severity when inoculated to potato tubers. We sequenced the F. graminearum isolates and investigated how genomic features influence host preferences. The results of this study will add to the growing evidence of the ability of this fungus to cross-infect, along with the possible influence of crop rotation to help manage the disease.