Histology of Spot Blotch Infection in Barley, QTL Mapping of Resistance to Fusarium Head Blight, and Characterization of Root Rot Diseases in Wheat
Abstract
Three independent studies were conducted for spot blotch (Bipolaris sorokiniana), Fusarium head blight (FHB) (Fusarium graminearum), and root rot diseases (Fusarium species and B. sorokiniana). Histopathology of compatible and incompatible interactions between different pathotypes of B. sorokiniana and different genotypes of barley was examined with red fluorescent protein-tagged fungal isolates. The fungus penetrated the host cell wall and developed multicellular globular infection hyphae (IH) in the lumen of epidermal cells, but infected epidermal cells appeared to be alive till 16 hours post-inoculation (HPI). In the susceptible plants, the tip of IH was found to grow ahead of the dead tissue and invade the surrounding live mesophyll cells, whereas growth of IH in the resistant plants was restricted to the dead tissue after 20 HPI. The amount of H2O2 accumulation and the fungal biomass were also significantly higher in the susceptible hosts than in the resistant hosts. To map resistance to FHB, two populations consisting 130 doubled haploid lines from the cross Grandin × PI277012 and 237 recombinant inbred lines from the cross Bobwhite × ND2710 were phenotyped and genotyped. QTL for Type I resistance were identified on chromosomes 1A, 2B, 4B, 5B and 6B in the GP population. These QTL explained 10.7-19 % of the total phenotypic variation. With the BN population, QTL for Type I resistance were identified on chromosomes 2A, 5A and 6B, explaining 6.2-13.7% of the total phenotypic variation. To assess the prevalence, incidence and severity of wheat crown rot (CR) and common root rot (CRR) in ND, wheat root samples were collected from fields across the state in 2012, 2013, and 2014. Fungal isolations indicated that B. sorokiniana was most frequently recovered in all sampled years. Seedling tests on ten spring wheat lines showed that Glenn was the least susceptible while Steele-ND was the most susceptible to one F. culmorum isolate and one B. sorokiniana isolate tested. Evaluation of 20 spring wheat genotypes for reaction to CRR at the adult plant stage showed that Freyr and RB07 were more resistant while Len and Briggs were more susceptible to CRR compared to other wheat genotypes evaluated.