Pathogenicity and mycotoxin production by Fusarium proliferatum isolated from onion and garlic in Serbia.

Fusarium proliferatum can occur on a wide range of economically important vegetable plants but its role in disease is not always well established. In 2000 and 2001, from forty-one field samples of wilting onion and garlic plants in Serbia, F. proliferatum was isolated from root and bulbs. Seventy isolates were firstly characterized for their sexual fertility and were shown to be mostly members of Gibberella intermedia, sexual stage of F. proliferatum. A selected set of eleven F. proliferatum isolates from both hosts were also tested for their pathogenicity and toxigenicity. Although onion and garlic plants were susceptible to all isolates, onion plants showed a significantly higher disease severity index. Six of the eleven isolates of F. proliferatum produced fumonisin B1 from 25 to 3000 mg/g, and beauvericin from 400 to 550 mg/g; ten isolates produced fusaric acid from 80 to 950 mg/g and moniliformin from 50 to 520 mg/g. Finally, all isolates produced fusaproliferin up to 400 mg/g. These results confirm F. proliferatum as an important pathogen of garlic and onion in Europe and that there is a potential mycotoxin accumulation risk in contaminated plants of both garlic and onion.