Inhibition of wheat take-all disease using defenses-inducing compounds

Abstract Application of defense-inducing compounds such as microbial volatiles is a new strategy for suppression of plant diseases based on plant intrinsic genetic potential. In this study, effect of defense inducing compounds including, benzothiazole, methyl salicylate, methyl jasmonate, butanediol, indole and acetoin were investigated on Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici mycelial growthin vitro and on suppression of wheat take-allat greenhouse situation as a completely randomized design. Seeds of wheat cultivar Pishgam were surface sterilized and placed in 100 μM solution of benzothiazole, methyl salicylate, methyl jasmonate, butanediol, indole, acetoin or control (distilled water) for 30 minutes. Seeds were sown in the pots containing pathogen inoculated soil in the greenhouse for 30 days. In vitro experiment showed that indole, butanediol and acetoin as best treatment reduced pathogen mycelial growth only 14.29, 14.29 and 8.27% compared to untreated control. Analysis of plant growth factors showed that defence inducers treatment had no significant effect on root dry weight compared to infected control. In contrast, benzothiazole, acetoin and methyl salicylate significantly increased aerial part dry weight. Moreover, all of the chemical inducers were able to reduce disease severity, significantly. The highest disease suppression were achieved in the case of benzothiazole and acetoin decreasing disease severity by 60.9 and 57.4 %, respectively. Exploitation of plant defense inducers seems to be promising strategy in management of wheat take-all disease.