Abstract
Spot blotch disease of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) caused by Bipolaris sorokiniana (Sacc) Shoemaker causes significant yield and quality losses in warm and humid agro-ecologies of the world. Breeding for resistance is considered to be the most economical and sustainable approach of controlling the disease. The objective of this study was to determine the genetic effect influencing inheritance of resistance to spot blotch in selected wheat genotypes using generation mean analysis to devise a resistance breeding strategy. Populations involving six generations (P1, P2, F1, F2, BCP1 and BCP2) were developed comprising two selected parental lines, i.e., Loerrie II and 19HRWSN6. Test materials were field evaluated for resistance to spot blotch during the 2014/15 cropping season in Zambia. Additive genetic effects were significant and accounted for 94.79% of the total genetic variation for spot blotch resistance in wheat. Dominance and epistatic effects were not detected. The predominance of additive genetic effects suggests that recurrent selection strategy could boost spot blotch resistance in these population to develop pure line wheat cultivars.
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