Fusarium culmorum: causal agent of food and root rot and head blight on weat

F. culmorum is an ubiquitous soil-borne fungus able to cause foot and root rot and Fusarium head blight on different small grain cereals, particularly wheat and barley. It causes significant yield and quality losses and results in contamination of the grain with mycotoxins. This review summarises recent research activities 25 related to F. culmorum, including studies into its population diversity, mycotoxin biosynthesis, mechanisms of pathogenesis and resistance, the development of diagnostic tools and preliminary genome sequencesurveys. We also propose potential research areas that may expand our basic understanding of the wheat-F. culmorum interaction and assist in the management of the disease caused by this pathogen.