REDUCTION OF YIELD AND MYCOTOXINS ACCUMULATION IN OATS CULTIVARS AFTER FUSARIUM-CULMORUM INOCULATION

Infection of oats with Fusarium culmorum may cause Fusarium head bligh t (scab), reduction of yield and accumulation a toxic metabolites In k ernels, To estimate the correlation between resistance traits and accu mulation of nivalenol (NIV), deoxynivalenol (DON) and 3-acetyldeoxyniv alenol (3-AcDON) seven oats cultivars were inoculated with F. culmorum in 1994 and 1995 crop years, Susceptibility of cultivar to the pathog en infection was expressed as number of kernels per ripe (KN), yield ( Y), and 1000 kernels weight (TKW) of the inoculated group compared to the non-inoculated control plots. The relative KN ranged in 1994 and 1 995 respectively from 95.1 to 70.4 %; while Y from 84.6 to 71.4 %; and TKW from 89.9 to 83.2%, Three trichothecene mycotoxins were analyzed in kernels: NIV at the average level (mg/kg) 0.54 (1994) and 1,53 (199 5), Mean concentration of DON and 3-AcDON was lower 0.33; 0.03 (1994), 0.64; 0.08 (1995). For the resistance traits and mycotoxins content i n oat grain variance and correlation coefficients were calculated.