Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Kristoffersen, Rose
• Heick, Thies Marten
• Müller, Gudrun Maria
• Eriksen, Lars Bonde
• Nielsen, Ghita Cordsen
• Jørgensen, Lise Nistrup

Titel

The potential of cultivar mixtures to reduce fungicide input and mitigate fungicide resistance development

Ist Teil von

• Agronomy for sustainable development, 2020, Vol.40 (5), Article 36

Ort / Verlag

Paris: Springer Paris

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The potential of cultivar mixtures to reduce disease severity and increase yields in cereals across the globe is well established. The effect of cultivar mixtures on the selection for pathogen strains resistant to specific fungicides has, however, not previously been investigated. In this study, the case of the pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici causing Septoria tritici blotch in wheat ( Triticum aestivum ) and resistance development to azole fungicides by single mutations in CYP51 was explored. Cultivar mixtures composed of a range of resistant and susceptible winter wheat cultivars were grown across a total of seven field trial sites and three growing seasons. The treatments consisted of untreated plots and plots with one, two, or three fungicide applications. From the trials, the economically optimal fungicide input was calculated and the level of fungicide resistance was measured as the frequency of key CYP51 mutations. The study demonstrates for the first time how cultivar mixtures can reduce the selection for fungicide resistance and can reduce the need for fungicide input. Based on four trial sites in two growing seasons, the majority of cultivar mixtures reduced the frequency of a CYP51 mutation compared with the component cultivars in pure stand. The highest significant reduction in mutation frequency by a cultivar mixture was 73%. Conditions with high fungicide input and low disease severity resulted in the most pronounced reductions in mutation frequency by cultivar mixtures. The economical need for using fungicides was also impacted by cultivar mixtures when compared with pure stand. Based on six trial sites across two growing seasons, the majority (67%) of cultivar mixtures had the potential to reduce the number of fungicide applications compared with their pure stand counterparts. These findings could have notable implications for intensive crop production. Within-field diversity can reduce the threat from diseases that have become resistant to fungicides and contribute to creating a more sustainable production where lower chemical inputs can sustain high yields.