Comparison of spray and point inoculation to assess resistance to Fusarium head blight in a multienvironment wheat trial
- Publication Type
- Journal contribution
- Authors
- Miedaner, T., M. Moldovan, and M. Ittu
- Year of publication
- 2003
- Published in
- Phytopathology
- Band/Volume
- 93/
- Page (from - to)
- 1068-1072
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 used. Spraying a spore suspension onto 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 varieties from Romania, Germany, and Switzerland were inoculated in factorial field experiments at seven environments (location-year combinations) in Germany and Romania. Response to FHB was assessed by percentage visually infected spikelets and head weight relative to the non-inoculated 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, too. Estimates of entry-mean heritability were higher for spray than for point inoculation as assessed by percentage infected spikelets (0.81 vs. 0.77) and relative head weight (0.77 vs. 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 percentage 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 give additional information for selection and scientific studies. Spray inoculation, however, is less laborious for large-scaled routine screening of breeding materials.