Cephalosporium maydis AS AFFECTED BY MAIZE ROOT EXUDATES AND ROLE OF THE FUNGAL METABOLITES IN PATHOGENESIS

Abstract

Cephalosporium maydis is a destructive microbial pathogen for the economic important crop maize in Egypt causing the late wilt disease. As pathogenesis is host and pathogen dependent, the effect of maize root exudates on C. maydis linear growth and the role of the fungal metabolites in the pathogenesis on maize were investigated. The obtained results revealed that root exudates of the resistant maize cultivar SC10 decreased the linear growth of C. maydis in Petri-dishes while those of the susceptible cultivar Balady had no effect. In addition to the known role of vessels plugging by the fungal biomass, responsibility of the fungal metabolites in pathogenesis was proved since the tested filtrates of C. maydis had deleterious effects on grain-germination, seedling growth and water conductivity in shoot parts. Injection of mature maize plants with C. maydis filtrates caused internal dark-brown to black discoloration.