Comparison of spray and point inoculation to assess resistance to fusarium head blight in a multienvironment wheat trial.

ABSTRACT Fusarium head blight (FHB, scab), caused by Fusarium graminearum or F. culmorum, results in yield and quality reductions and accumulation of mycotoxins. Two inoculation methods are commonly used. Spraying a spore suspension on the head (spray inoculation) will detect resistance to initial infection (type I) and to disease spread within the spike (type II). Injecting a spore suspension into individual florets (point inoculation) will detect type II resistance only. To analyze the association of spray and point inoculation, 20 elite winter wheat cultivars from Romania, Germany, and Switzerland were inoculated in factorial field experiments in seven environments (location x year combinations) in Germany and Romania. Response to FHB was assessed by the percentage of visually infected spikelets and head weight relative to the noninoculated control. Point and spray inoculations resulted in a mean disease severity varying from 52 to 63%. Significant (P = 0.01) genotypic variation was found within and across the environments. Genotype-environment interaction was important also. Estimates of entry-mean heritability were higher for spray than for point inoculation as assessed by percent infected spikelets (0.81 versus 0.77) and relative head weight (0.77 versus 0.52). Significant (P = 0.01) interaction was found between inoculation methods. Consequently, coefficients of phenotypic correlation between both methods were low to medium for percent infected spikelets (0.40, P > 0.1) and relative head weight (0.52, P = 0.05). We conclude that the application of both inoculation methods should provide additional information for selection and scientific studies. Spray inoculation, however, is less laborious for large-scale routine screening of breeding materials.

Deoxynivalenol accumulation and other scab symptoms in six romanian wheat genotypes inoculated withFusarium graminearum.

At anthesis, under field conditions at Fundulea, each of 6 Romanian winter wheat genotypes was inoculated with 3Fusarium graminearum isolates used individually.Fusarium head blight (FHB) was assessed according to the following traits: relative weight of spikes (RWS), percentage of Fusarium damaged kernels (FDK), relative weight of kernels per head (RWKH), area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC) and deoxynivalenol (DON) content in total sample of kernels. Correlations between these traits and parameters revealed important differences between examined wheat genotypes in: DON accumulation, progress of FHB development, yield reduction, and models of host - pathogen interactions in theTriticum - Fusarium pathosystem. Significant correlations between different attributes of FHB were found forFusarium isolate 1 which is a moderate producer of DON (0.89 µg g(-1)). Weight of spike was significantly correlated with weight of kernels per spike (r = 0.93**) and with percentage of damaged kernels (r = - 0.87**), while FDK was highly correlated with RWKH (r = - 0.85*) and with DON content (r = 0.82*). Area under the disease progress curve was also found to be significantly correlated with DON content (r = 0.86*).