Resistance to Ustilago avenae in European oat lines

Abstract

Growing of resistant cultivars is the most effective and ecological way to prevent losses due to the loose smut, a disease prevalent in farming without seed treatments. In the present poster, the resistance level to loose smut in some of the European oat cultivars and genebank accessions is described. For the inoculation of seed a vacuum-based method was used. The inoculum consisted of two loose-smut collections with different virulences. In all resistance screenings, inoculation was done at 800 mbar vacuum pressure and with an aqueous spore suspension of 1g/litre. Resistance evaluations were started with a glasshouse experiment with 216 genebank A. sativa accessions and 40 oat breeding lines or differentials, followed by the nursery experiment at two locations examining 100 cultivars and lines, respectively, and were completed with a glasshouse experiment with 60 oat lines. The resistance screening at two locations and the two glasshouse screenings revealed at least 8 modern cultivars and 11 genebank accessions with very high levels of resistance. A highly significant correlation coefficient between glasshouse and nursery examination was found, whereby the glasshouse conditions were favourable for testing under a high disease pressure. Among the entries suitable for growing under ecological conditions, the smut-resistant cvs. 'Neklan', 'Jumbo', 'Firth', 'Hamel', 'Boxer', 'Auteuil' and 'Chantilly' are recommended.