Antifungal activity toward Fusarium culmorum in soluble wheat extracts

This study investigated antifungal activity in soluble extracts from seed o f a range of wheat cultivars differing in susceptibility to Fusarium head b light Antifungal activity was assessed in terms of beta-D-glucuronidase (GU S) activity of a Fusarium culmorum GUS transformant using a sensitive labor atory assay. Significant antifungal activity was detected in seed extracts from WEK0609, CM 820036, and Arina. Initial characterization of the Arina s eed extract indicated that it contained antifungal proteinaceous compounds. The Arina extract yielded two (60 and 80%) ammonium sulfate fractions cont aining inhibitory compounds. Gel filtration chromatography and subsequent s odium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of antifungal frac tions showed that the antifungal activities detected in the Arina 60 and 80 % ammonium sulfate fractions were associated with putative proteinaceous co mpounds with apparent molecular masses of approximately 60 and 28 kDa, resp ectively.