Abstract

An improved method has been devised for the screening of cereals with crown rot caused by Fusarium species. By growing plants in open-ended tubes set into galvanised baskets which are then placed on sand in outdoor terraces, it is possible to screen large numbers of plants, detecting adult plant resistance, using precise quantities of a single pathogen species. This 'Terrace' system has been used to seek alternative sources of resistance to crown rot in tetraploid and hexaploid wheats and to demonstrate that resistance in check cultivars is effective against both F. pseudograminearum and F. culmorum. Adult plant resistance in the cv. Kukri has been investigated using the Terraces and bulked segregant analysis of doubled haploid lines, and a resistance locus with polymorphic markers has been identified on chromosome 4B near the dwarfing gene Rht1.