Field screening of bread wheat and barley germplasm for resistance to some fungal diseases in the kef semi-arid area of Tunisia

Abstract EN

Thirteen bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and 25 barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) lines obtained from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) germplasm pools were evaluated for their resistance to some fungal diseases under the semiarid conditions of Kef area in northwest of Tunisia.

When bread wheat was inoculated with the common bunt pathogen (Tilletia laevis Kuhn), the most resistant were lines 5 and 6 having a mean of 1 % of bunted spikes.

The 25 lines of barley inoculated with the covered smut pathogen (Ustilago segetum (Pers.) Ditmar) did not show smutted spikes.

Based on natural infection of barley, lines 20, 23, and 25 were resistant to net blotch, 2 and 5 to powdery mildew, and 1, 5, 16, and 18 to scald.

When the overall resistance to those foliar diseases was evaluated, line 1 was the best, followed by lines 9, 10, and 18.