Hourly and daily changes on airborne urediniospores of Phakopsora pachyrhizi

Abstract

The Asian rust (Phakopsora pachyrhizi) is one of the most destructive diseases of soybean in Brazil. Despite its importance, little is known about the airborne inoculum production dynamics of pathogen throughout the soybean cycle in Brazil. The objective of this study was to assess the temporal variation of air collected P. pachyrhizi urediniospores using a Burkard 7-day-spore-trap during 2006-2007 and 2007-2008, from November to March of each soybean (MSoy-8001) growing season. The disease severity was quantified on soybean planted in October 18, 2006 and in October 30, 2007. From November/06 through March/07 were collected over 175,000 urediniospores, and, over 131,000 from November/07 to March/08. In 06-07, most of the spores were collected from January 9, 2007 through February 1^st, 2007 (±3,000 urediniospores day^-1), and, in 07-08 most urediniospores was collected from February 8, 2008 throughout March 2, 2008 (±2,000 urediniospores day^-1). The maximum amount of urediniospores collected in a single day in 06-07 (±15,000; 1/25/2007) was higher than in 07-08 (±12,000; 2/13/2008). In both soybean growing seasons most of the hourly urediniospores was collected from 10:00 am through 6:00 pm and the highest number from December to March, was at 3:00 pm (±16,000 in 06-07 and ±14,000 in 07-08). The disease started earlier in 2006-07 [38 days after planting (DAP)] than in 07-08 (58 DAP). The amount of collected airborne spores was positively correlated to disease severity, leaf wetness, and, precipitation along both soybean growing seasons. However, during a 24h-day evaluation, the major amount of hourly collected spores was negatively correlated to the leaf wetness and air relative humidity.