Oral Presentation Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference 2025

Assessment of disease tolerance in wheat to tan spot and stagonospora nodorum blotch  (119399)

Robabeh Hosseini Ghavamabad 1 , Dion Bennet 2 , lilian sanglord 1 , chen kefei 1 , Ayalseew zerihun 1 , Mark Gibberd 1 , Fatima Naim 1
  1. centre of crop disease management, Butler, WA, Australia
  2. Australian Grain Technologies, WA , perth, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, Australia

For future food security, it is necessary to improve the durability of crop plants against diseases. Resistance and tolerance are two categories of defence mechanisms that host organisms use to cope with diseases; of these, less is known about the mechanisms that cereal plants use to tolerate disease. This study used a set of genetically divergent wheat genotypes rated moderately susceptible to tan spot and stagonospora nodorum blotch with closely matched phenology to examine genetic variation in disease tolerance. A field experiment was established in Goomalling, Western Australia, in 2024 using 24 wheat genotypes exposed to natural infection. This site was selected for its previous history of high-disease pressure for tan spot and stagonospora nodorum blotch. The experiment was conducted as a split-plot design with fungicide treatment as whole plots and wheat genotype as sub-plots in three replicates. To measure tolerance NDVI, disease scores, fungal biomass and yield data were captured for each plot. The results showed that while wheat genotypes exhibited significant differences in yield due to disease, only 52% of the variation in yield loss is explained by variation in the area under the disease pressure curves (AUDPC). As such, the association of fungal biomass with disease score and yield loss is under investigation and is expected to show that some genotypes can tolerate disease better than others. These results are promising in defining the “moderately” susceptible behaviour of various wheat genotypes and the first study to assess disease tolerance to foliar fungal pathogens in wheat in Australia.  

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