Biological suppression of the saprophytic growth of Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici in soil

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Abstract
The biological suppression of the saprophytic growth of Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici in soil in the absence of host roots appeared to be related to suppression of take-all disease of wheat seedlings. When soil collected from a plot which in 1984 and 1985 had grown wheat continuously for 7 and 8 years, respectively, was added at a level of 1% (w/w) to the same soil treated by .gamma.-radiation, saprophytic growth of pigmented hyphae of G. graminis var. tritici on a filter membrane in a soil sandwich was suppressed relative to that occurring in irradiated soil. A soil of the same type from an adjacent area with a history of cereal-pasture alternate rotation did not significantly suppress saprophytic growth of G. graminis var. tritici. Biological suppression of disease of wheat caused by G. graminis var. tritici was tested in a pot bioassay by adding the same two soils, collected in 1985, at a level of 1% (w/w) to fumigated sand infested with oat kernels axenically colonized by the pathogen. Disease severity, measured as the percentage of the seminal root axes with discoloured stele, was reduced by 42 and 6% with the addition of continuous wheat and cereal-pasture rotation soils, respectively, to infested sand, compared with disease severity in unamended, infested sand alone.