Pigmented wheat genotypes as innovative tools against fusarium head blight disease

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is one of the main severe cereal diseases, including bread wheat (Triticum aestivum). To date, few fungicides to counteract this disease are available, thus there is a high priority need to find new protective compounds. Polyphenols are secondary metabolites that act as stress protecting agents, playing a significant role in plant resistance against plant pathogens. Pigmented wheat genotypes have flavonoid-rich kernels due to the presence of anthocyanins in the external layers (pericarp and aleurone). The aim of the present work was to evaluate whether the pigmented wheat genotypes show an increased resistance to FHB and if the development of new crop protection products based on nanomaterials obtained from pigmented wheat wastes (such as bran) can be successfully used to counteract FHB. The work was articulated in several steps: 1) evaluation of the resistance level of five pigmented wheat genotypes (two blue-aleurone genotypes, Purendo and Skorpion and three purple-pericarp genotypes, Rosso, Vanilnoir, and Indigo) compared to a resistant genotype (Sumai3) and to a control non pigmented cultivar (Rebelde); 2) synthetize cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) from cellulose of wheat bran to be used as crop protection products. Results highlighted that blue aleurone genotypes showed high susceptibility to FHB, purple pericarp genotypes are less susceptible and Vanilnoir showed a resistance level comparable to Sumai3. CNCs was successfully obtained by pigmented wheat bran and further analysis to verify its antimicrobial activity (both in vitro and in vivo) has already been planned.