Soil characteristics associated with Panama disease severity

Panama disease, caused by the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense (Foc), has had devastating effects on banana production globally and is now threatening Australia's largest banana production region, Far North Queensland (O'Neill et al., 2016). Severity of the disease, and growth of the causal organism have been linked to soil properties in other parts of the world, but not in this key agricultural region of Australia (Deltour et al., 2017; Peng et al., 1999). Disease severity is determined by the host plant, the pathogen and the environment. For soil-borne diseases such as Panama disease the soil microbial community is a particularly important aspect of the environment. The host plant, pathogen and soil microbial community are all influenced by abiotic characteristics of the soil. The aim of this study was to determine a) if Panama disease severity differs between soils of Australia's main banana growing area, b) which abiotic soil characteristics are influential, and c) if a rapid assay can be used to rank soils for their effect on disease severity.