This thesis has the object to study in deep the relationship between modalities of wheat cultivation in Tuscany, the enviromental and genotypic variability of the species cultivated and how these factors affect the diseases.

Wheat is one of the major national culture, a key component of the Mediterranean diet and an important commodity produced, traded and used globally.

The need to setup a framework to the present phytopathological situation of wheat in Tuscany was born from the instability that agro-ecosystems have shown in recent years, and that is caused by climate change and global warming. Furthermore, it was relevant that 1) the will emerged in many farmers to rediscover ancient varieties with better organoleptic and health properties growing them without the use of chemical products compared with the modern varieties; 2) the need to cultivate ancient varieties without the use of chemical products, 3) the urgency to understand which are the factors that most influence on the development of mycotoxigenic fungi.

For the purposes of this study, the agronomic, varietal, climatic and epidemiological data derived from health monitoring of plants carried out in three years (2013-2014-2015) on 5 farms. The most common diseases in the examined area were: wheat leaf rust, yellow stripe rust, septoriosis and with lower incidence and severity Fusarium head blight.The epidemiological trends of these diseases is mainly influenced by crop rotation, sowing date, type of tillage, wheat’s species, variety type (ancient and modern), temperatures and rainfall . At the same time we have been processing the results of the caryopses laboratory analysis, carried out at the ISPA CNR of Bari, concerning the presence of mycotoxins (DON, ZEA, NIV, T2 and HT2), the presence of Alternaria spp., Fusarium spp. and the total of the fungal contamination. The seeds belong to the monitored varieties and to other varieties cultivated always in the Tuscan area. Statistical analysis of this data showed that the "treatment" factor seems to favor the presence of both Fusarium spp. and Alternaria spp. and in general the of total fungal colonization on the caryopses.

 

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