Evaluation of Some Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Varieties Reaction to Septoria Tritici Blotch Disease

Abstract

Septoria tritici blotch (STB), caused by the Zymoseptoria tritici is an important wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) disease in the Türkiye and in many countries in the world. In this study, a total of 92 bread wheat varieties were evaluated for STB in the adult plant stage under natural infection conditions. The field trial was performed at the experimental station at the campus of Akdeniz University, Antalya, Türkiye for two consecutive years with the two replications. Disease evaluations were performed using the double-digit scale (00-99). Based on the disease evaluations, the disease severity ranged from 15 to 80, and 21 to 82 in the growing seasons 2022 and 2023, respectively. In infection types, four disease reactions were determined namely resistant, moderately resistant, moderately susceptible, and susceptible. Overall, while 32.61% and 36.96% of the varieties were resistant and moderately resistant to STB, 17.39% and 13.04% of them showed moderately susceptible and susceptible reactions, respectively. In conclusion, these varieties can be used in resistance breeding programs to STB disease. In further studies, the resistant/susceptible reactions of bread wheat varieties to STB should be identified to carry which resistance gene/genes or not.