Resistance and virulence variability in wheat–Zymoseptoria tritici interactions

Abstract

Septoria tritici blotch (STB), caused by Zymoseptoria tritici, is an important disease of wheat worldwide. This study was performed to investigate the efficacy of Stb genes against 10 isolates of Z. tritici and to elucidate the resistance response pattern of 185 wheat genotypes to STB. The 10 isolates showed different virulence patterns on the Stb differentials. Effectiveness determination showed that most Stb genes (particularly Stb1–Stb9) were ineffective against the 10 isolates, whereas Kavkaz-K4500 (possessing Stb10, Stb12), Arina and Riband (possessing Stb15), and M3 (possessing Stb16 and Stb17) were resistant to all isolates tested. Of the 185 wheat genotypes, 72% were susceptible to all isolates, indicating that these genotypes lacked any effective resistance genes at the seedling stage against the isolates used. The remaining 51 genotypes showed specific resistance to one or more isolates, suggesting that they contain at least one effective resistance gene. Six genotypes were resistant to all isolates, indicating that they may possess broad-spectrum resistance gene(s) or a combination of diverse uncharacterised Stb genes that could be effectively used in breeding programs.