Fig. 2
Box plot distribution of the effect of spraying wheat heads with chitosan pre-inoculation on the development of Fusarium head blight disease and grain yield. The heads of wheat cv. Remus were sprayed at mid-anthesis with water (control) or 0.2% chitosan (w v-1) and were spray-inoculated 24 hours before with 0.02% Tween 20 (mock) or 105 spores ml-1 F. graminearum GZ3639 in 0.02% Tween 20. The (A) Area Under Disease Progress Curve (AUDPC) was calculated based on the percentage of infected spikelets measured at 7, 14 and 21 dpi from five replica trials. The (B) average grain weight per head (mg), C number of grains per head and (D) 1000-grain weight (g) were measured from three replica trials. Medians are indicated by solid lines; × represents mean. A Asterisks above the data sets indicate that the data are statistically significantly different from the mock water treatment according to Kruskal-Wallis tests (*** = P ≤ 0.001). B, C and D Different letters above the data sets indicate that the data are statistically significantly different according to Kruskal-Wallis tests (P ≤ 0.05)