Fusarium - plant interaction: State of the art - a Review

Abstract

One of the most important genus able to develop disease in cereals is Fusarium which not only produces losses by the fungal presence but also mycotoxin production harmful to human and animal consumers. In the environment, plants are continuously threatened by abiotic and biotic stresses. Among the last, pathogens acquired mainly importance due to their ability to affect the plant fitness. To protect to potential attacks, plants have developed strategies which phytohormones have an essential role. In plant-pathogen interactions, salicylic acid, ethylene and jasmonates are the most important, but there are also auxins, gibberellins, abscisic acid, cytokinins, brassinosteroids and peptide hormones involved in plant defense. The interaction between Fusarium species and plants used as model have been developed to allow understanding the plant behavior against this kind of pathogen with the aim to develop several strategies to decrease the Fusarium disease effects.