Black point in wheat: reality vs stereotypes
Keywords:
harmfulness, fungal DNA, grain, quantitative PCR, mycology, disease symptoms, physiologyAbstract
The “black point “ symptom is a common discoloration of wheat and barley grain observed in most regions worldwide where these crops are grown. There are strict standards for the content of black point grains in batches of food wheat both in Russia and abroad. The mechanisms involved in the appearance of dark pigment have not yet been fully elucidated. In this study, an analysis of average samples of commercial batches of winter wheat from the Central Federal District of the 2024 harvest was carried out, where the proportion of visually detected grains with black point ranged from 4 to 27 %. According to the obtained results, the percentage of fungal infection, the taxonomic composition of mycobiota and the DNA content of the two dominant fungal groups Alternaria and Fusarium were highly similar in the fractions of visually healthy grain and grain with black point. In our opinion, this symptom is caused by abiotic environmental factors leading to physiological darkening of grain tissues, and with a high degree of certainty can be attributed to wheat diseases, the harmfulness of which has not been proven.
