Common root rot is a disease of wheat

Wheat

Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...

 caused by one or more fungi. Cochliobolus sativus

Cochliobolus sativus

The fungus Cochliobolus sativus is the teleomorph of Bipolaris sorokiniana which is the causal agent of a wide variety of cereal diseases. The pathogen can infect and cause disease on the root , leaf and stem, and head tissue...

, Fusarium culmorum

Fusarium culmorum

Fusarium culmorum is a plant pathogen and the causal agent of seedling blight, foot rot, ear blight, stalk rot, common root rot and other diseases of cereals, grasses, and a wide variety of monocots and dicots. In coastal dunegrass , F. culmorum is a non-pathogenic symbiont conferring both salt...

and F. graminearum are the most common pathogens responsible for common root rot.

Symptoms

Small, oval, brown lesions on the roots, lower leaf sheath and subcrown internode. As the disease progresses, lesions may elongate, coalesce and girdle the subcrown internode and may turn from brown to nearly black.

Crop losses

Losses in potential yield from common root rot of wheat were estimated at 5.7% annually over the 3-year period 1969-71 in the Canadian prairie provinces and at 7% annually over the 10-year period 1968-78 ub Saskatchewan, Canada.