Potential for Bunt Resistant Wheats.

Abstract

When seed of wheat cultivars susceptible to common bunt was contaminated with low concentrations of teliospores (Tilletia laevis and T. tritici) the disease reached epiphytotic proportions in two years. Cultivars with moderate resistance and low initial inoculum levels produced little disease; they required high initial inoculum concentrations to produce unacceptable levels of bunt in two years. Inoculated lines containing bunt resistant Bt genes (either Bt8, Bt9 or Bt10) were not diseased. The lines therefore have sufficient resistance to prevent bunt in the absence of chemical control.