Confirmation of Candidature - Impact of Common Root rot and Crown rot Causing Fungal Pathogens on the Root Systems of Wheat Crop

The infection from the soil borne pathogens, Bipolaris sorokiniana (Bp) and Fusarium pseudograminearum (Fp) cause common root rot (CRR) and crown rot (CR) respectively in wheat (Triticum aestivum). CRR and CR cause major yield loss in wheat. The best management practices to reduce these losses include using crop rotations that are resistant to both diseases, and to sow the most genetically resistant and tolerant genotypes available. Currently, the most genetically resistant and tolerant genotypes available to Australian growers only offer partial protection to both diseases, thus more research is required to limit the losses. This research project aims to investigate how CR and CRR impact the development of roots in wheat in the glasshouse.  Firstly, a multi-factorial experiment is conducted where, for the first factor, the wheat cv. Lancer is grown in two different soil types, namely (i) peat: sand and (ii) a black vertosol: sand, with both types combined in a 1:1 ratio. The second factor is soil depth, whereby each of the above soils is potted into PVC tubes of 100 mm diameter, with the tube depths being 0.9, 1.2 and 1.5 m. Water is added to each tube to the point of saturation and allowed to drain to the soil drained upper limit (DUL) or field capacity. At weekly intervals, each tube is weighed, and imaging is conducted measuring normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI). At the conclusion of the experiment, root biomass and architecture will be determined, and the water extraction rates calculated. A second experiment is grown in smaller pots (14cm height) using the soil types and wheat genotype described in the previous experiment.  In this experiment, the soil is maintained at either 75 or 100% of the DUL to determine the suitability of each soil type to develop disease symptoms with respect to plant available water (PAW). These two experiments will identify a method that would be suitable to conduct the third experiment which will test the impact of the pathogens on the root systems in wheat. Developing a robust, accurate and efficient method that captures the changes to root system is important for researchers to characterise germplasm for resistance and tolerance to CR and CRR and can potentially be used in the future with different pathogens, including root lesion nematodes and different crops.  

For more information, please email the Graduate Research School or phone 0746 311088.