Prevalence of fungi and Deoxynivalenol Levels in Winter Wheat Grain in Different Climatic Regions of Poland.

head blight (FHB) caused by fungi of the genus is one of the most dangerous crop diseases, which has a wide geographic distribution and causes severe economic losses in the production of major cereal species. The infection leads to the accumulation of mycotoxins in grains, which compromises its suitability for human and animal consumption. The study demonstrated that grain samples from warmer regions of Poland, including Sulejów and Tomaszów Bolesławicki (results differed across years of the study), were colonized mainly by and were most highly contaminated with deoxynivalenol (DON). Samples from Northeastern Poland, i.e., Ruska Wieś, which is located in a cooler region, were characterized by a predominance of species typical of the cold climate, i.e., and . A Spearman's rank correlation analysis revealed that the severity of grain infection with / was affected by the mean daily temperature and high humidity in May, and the corresponding values of the correlation coefficient were determined at R = 0.54 and R = 0.50. Competitive interactions were observed between the / genotype and DON-producing and , because the severity of grain infections caused by these pathogens was bound by a negative correlation.