Effectiveness of Infectious Backgrounds in Evaluation of Oat for Resistance to Fungal Diseases

Abstract

Weather factors usually favor the development of loose smut and crown rust in the northeast of the European part of the Russian Federation. During the growing season of 2017–2019, precipitation and heat resources widely varied that affected the development of these diseases under natural conditions. The aim of the work was to demonstrate the effectiveness of using artificial infectious backgrounds in breeding of oats under unstable weather conditions typical of this region. Different types of naked and covered oats were studied in terms of their susceptibility to loose smut and crown rust. Assessment of different genotypes in the infectious backgrounds enabled determining plant responses to pathogens regardless of the abiotic factors. In the years of research, the degree of damage to the susceptible cultivars caused by loose smut and crown rust attained 100 and 82%, respectively. Analysis of weather effects on oat diseases over critical ontogenetic periods revealed a generally negative dependence of the loose smut development on temperature and precipitation during the period from flowering to milk ripeness and a highly positive dependence of the crown rust development on these factors during the period from forming leaf-tube to flowering.