For many years, fungicide
control of Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) primarily relied upon the application of demethylation
inhibitor (DMI) fungicides. In 2019, the first fungicide containing a succinate
dehydrogenase (SDHI) class fungicide was labeled for FHB management in cereal
grains. A national effort was initiated in 2020-21 to document
baseline fungicide sensitivities of Fusarium
species causing FHB in United States wheat to the new active ingredient
pydiflumetofen. Isolates were submitted from 16 states as part of a United
States Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative (USWBSI) MGMT project. From the total
isolate set, 177 F. graminearum isolates
were screened for fungicide sensitivity, including 98 collected in 2020, 65
collected in 2021, and 14 historic isolates collected from 1991-2014 that were
never exposed to pydiflumetofen. An in vitro assay with fungicide-amended
PDA plates at 0, 0.01, 0.05, 0.25, 1.0, and 5.0 μg/mL was established to
determine the effective concentration to reduce mycelial growth by 50% (EC50)
for each isolate and EC50 values were averaged by state. Average EC50 values
for 2020-21 isolates grouped by state ranged from 0.18 to 0.73 μg/mL, with 2020
and 2021 cumulative averages of 0.40 μg/mL and 0.37 μg/mL, respectively.
The average EC50 value of historic isolates was 0.35 μg/mL. This project
established preliminary baseline sensitivities to enable monitoring of fungicide
sensitivity levels as SDHI fungicide exposure becomes more prevalent across
small grain production regions of the U.S. Two testing locations have been
established to expand this effort to include isolates from additional states,
geographies, and cropping systems while also screening additional SDHI and DMI
active ingredients. Midwest and Pacific Northwest regions can submit samples
and isolates to Dr. Martin Chilvers at Michigan State University and
southern and east coast regions can submit to Dr. Alyssa Koehler at the University
of Delaware. This project seeks to facilitate isolate collection, storage, and
fungicide characterization to promote collaborative efforts to monitor for
changes in sensitivity levels over time.