Caracterização epidemiológica da podridão em escama da cebola

Abstract

The onion is the third vegetable in economic importance on the world, with emphasis on Brazil as one of the most economically important vegetable, both by the volume and the income produced. This culture can be affected by various diseases, especially the scale rot, caused by bacteria of the Burkholderia cepacia complex. In an attempt to determine the favorable conditions for the development of epidemics, the knowledge of host-pathogen-environment interaction is essential. Thus, the appropriate inoculum concentration, the temperature range, the period of humidification exposure and the age, which the plant host becomes more susceptible to the establishment of high levels of disease, should be identified for each host-pathogen association. Although these epidemiological characteristics are the key factors for infection and subsequent development of rot in scale, there is no consistent information about the influence of these parameters on the behavior of the disease. Therefore, this study aimed to select and identify six isolates of B. cepacia complex, and determine the in vitro temperature, evaluate the effect of the inoculum concentration, temperature, presence and exposure to moisture chamber and the age of the bulbs in the severity of scale rot onion. Through Bayesian inference, the isolates CRMB31, and CRMB109 CRMB259 were identified as B. cenocepacia, while the isolates CRMB76, and CRMB199 CRMB222 were identified as B. arboris. The optimum temperature for in vitro growth of the isolates B. cenocepacia was 30°C, while for the isolates of B. arboris was 28°C. The conditions that predispose the occurrence of rot severity scale at higher inoculum were load of 108 CFU/mL, together on a wetness of 48 h, temperature between 35 and 40°C and more young tissues. To our knowledge, this is the first study to determine the environmental factors favorable to the development of rot in onion scale. In addition, the information obtained in this study will be useful for understanding the epidemics of the rot in scale and will assist in the implementation of strategies to control the disease.