ABSTRACT
Wheat blast, caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, is among the factors of highest risk for wheat production because losses can be greater than 90% in crop seasons with favorable environmental conditions to the development of this disease. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of zinc sulfate on M. oryzae infection in wheat leaves, as well as hydrogen peroxide production and cell death in the plant. The disease severity was evaluated as a function of foliar application of Zn (0, 0.4%, 0.8%, 1.2% and 1.6% zinc sulfate) in four different wheat cultivars (‘Mirante’, ‘Safira’, ‘Madre Pérola’ and ‘Ônix’). In addition, with the aim of verifying which histological component is possibly involved in reducing blast severity, an experiment was carried out with application of 0.4% zinc sulfate onto the 3rd leaf and without application (distilled water) in the cultivar ‘Safira’, which is susceptible to this disease. Three days after ZnSO4 application, the plants were inoculated with 104 conidia.mL-1 suspension of M. oryzae and kept in a humid chamber during 24 h; leaves were collected at 18, 24, 30, 36, 48 and 72 hours after inoculation (hai). The leaves were fragmented and bleached for histopathological evaluations of the responses of hydrogen peroxide production and cell death during wheat infection by M. oryzae. Wheat blast severity reduced when zinc was applied at different concentrations in all cultivars, except ‘Onyx’. Zinc at 0.4% had no effect on infection events, except for cell death at 48 hai. The wheat cultivar and the zinc sulfate concentrations influenced the disease severity reduction efficiency.
Keywords
Reactive oxygen species; cell death;
Pyricularia oryzae
;
Triticum aestivum
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