Components of Partial Disease Resistance in Wheat Detected in a Detached Leaf Assay Inoculated with Microdochium majus using First, Second and Third Expanding Seedling Leaves

The use of first, second and third expanding seedling leaves of wheat (L1, L2 and L3 respectively), inoculated with conidial suspensions of Microdochium majus (syn. Microdochium nivale var. majus) in a detached leaf assay, for detecting components of partial disease resistance (PDR) was investigated across a range of wheat cultivars. Incubation periods (period from inoculation to first appearance of symptoms; a dull grey–green water-soaked lesion) and latent periods (period from inoculation to the first appearance of sporodochia) were longest and lesions smallest on L3. The expression of PDR components on L2 was intermediate to those on L1 and L3. The longer latent periods on L3 typically occurred after leaf senescence contrasting with latent periods on L1 and L2 where sporulation most frequently occurred on relatively green leaf tissue. Cultivar differences in the first appearance of symptoms, incubation period, which occurred before any leaf senescence was observed, correlated significantly across all leaf positions. Similarly cultivar differences in latent period were correlated for L1 and L2. However, latent periods on L3, which were the least consistent between cultivars across experiments, were not correlated with those of L1 or L2 in any experiment. The results indicate that due to the delay in sporulation until after leaf senescence, observations on latent period in L3 are less representative of what occurs in the whole plant where infection of living tissue is of greatest interest. This work indicates that the selection of the first or second expanding leaf of wheat is optimal for the use in the detached leaf assay using M. majus for studying components of PDR.