Ethirimol‐sensitivity in populations of Erysiphe graminis from plots of spring barley

Abstract

SUMMARYBarley plots, cv. Proctor were sown with either ethirimol‐treated or untreated seed. At seedling emergence, plots were inoculated with isolates of Erysiphe graminis either sensitive or insensitive to ethirimol, or left uninoculated.Mildew samples taken from the coleoptile leaves of seedlings, and later from leaf 6 (next but one to the flag leaf) were compared for ethirimol sensitivity using probit analysis. Probit lines were derived using ‘Wadley's analysis’. This analysis uses the number of survivors to estimate the total number of individuals originally present. In the test for ethirimol sensitivity a count of colonies on inoculated test leaves was taken to represent survivors. Microscopic counting of the original inoculum was thus avoided.The analyses snowed that the initial leaf inoculation treatments established mildew populations in the plots, which differed considerably in ethirimol sensitivity. Some 6 wk after inoculation the levels of sensitivity in these populations remained unchanged even though inoculum coming into the experiment from external sources was often much more insensitive than the mildew in some plots.Probit lines of response to ethirimol had shallow slopes, showing that large variability exists in the pathogen for this character.