Die Bodenkultur - Journal for Land Management, Food and Environment

M. LEMMENS, H. BÜRSTMAYR and P. RUCKENBAUER:

Variation in Fusarium head blight susceptibility of international and Austrian wheat breeding material!

Summary

International and Austrian Triticum aestivum L. and Triticum durum Desf, genotypes were investigated on their head blight sensitivity after artificial inoculation with one Fusarium culmorum and two Fusariutti graminearum inocula. The spread of the disease was evaluated four to five times. The area under the disease progressing curve (AUDPC) was calculated and standardized (SAUDPC). Determination of relative ear weight and relative grain yield compared to uninoculated controls were carried out. The analyses of the data of these field parameters revealed the presence of significant quantitative differences in head blight susceptibility among the investigated genotypes (means of the SAUDPC of the varieties ranging from 0.10 (high sensitivity) up to 0.74 (low sensitivity) with LSD 5 % = 0.06). All Triticum dumm genotypes were very susceptible. 'Significant interactions occurred between genotypes and isolates. The correlation between the visual evaluation data at the 14t h day after inoculation and SAUDPC was - 0.95. Highly significant correlations were also detected between the data for SAUDPC and relative yield (r=0.75) and between the data of relative ear weight and relative yield (r=0.91) (for all r: P<O.1 %). Significant correlations were found between the field data of the individual inocula. Key-words: Fusarium, head blight, wheat, resistance breeding.