Interaction between resistance to Septoria tritici and phenological stages in wheat

Studies dedicated to understanding the behavior of pathogens in relation to their hosts are the starting point for any breeding program aimed to develop resistant cultivars. The objective of this study was to analyze the resistance to Septoria tritici Rob in 77 F11 progenies of wheat derived from the three-way cross Tadinia ´ (Yecora rojo ´ UC554) in the phenological stages of seedling, tillering, and flag leaf/flowering. Three field experiments were conducted where plants were artificially inoculated at one of the above mentioned phenological stages by spraying with a suspension of conidia. A randomized block design with four replications was used in each experiment. Disease evaluations were made by measuring the foliar area covered with chlorotic and necrotic lesions in the seedling and tillering stages and the leaf area covered with pycnidia in the flag leaf/flowering stage, using disease rating scales. Differences (P < 0.0001) were detected among progenies for Damaged Leaf Area (DLA) in all phenological stages. Joint analysis of variance for DLA indicated interaction between progeny and phenological stage (P < 0.0001) for all binary combinations analyzed (seedling-tillering, seedling-flag leaf and tillering-flag leaf) as it also did for the triple combination involving the three phenological stages. It is necessary to evaluate resistance in more than one phenological stage to guarantee the correct selection of resistant genotypes. Estudos destinados a entender o comportamento de patógenos em relação a seus hospedeiros são o ponto de partida para qualquer programa de melhoramento cujo objetivo é obter cultivares resistentes. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi analisar a resistência a Septoria tritici Rob em 77 progênies F11 de trigo derivadas do cruzamento Tadinia ´ (Yecora rojo ´ UC554) nos estádios fenológicos de plântula, perfilhamento e folha bandeira. Para tal, foram conduzidos três experimentos de campo, onde as plantas foram inoculadas em um dos estádios fenológicos acima mencionados através da pulverização com uma suspensão de conídios, em um delineamento em blocos casualizados, com quatro repetições, onde as parcelas experimentais foram constituídas por uma fileira de um metro de comprimento contendo oito plantas, com um espaçamento de 0,17 m entre linhas e 0,13 m entre plantas. As avaliações da severidade da doença foram feitas registrando-se a área foliar coberta por lesões necróticas e cloróticas, nos estádios de plântula e perfilhamento e