Effect of nitrogen and phosphorus deficiency in wheat on the infection of roots by Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici

Abstract

Wheat was grown in a slightly acid grey sand at six levels of phosphorus and four levels of nitrogen, in the presence and absence of inoculum of Gaeurnannomyces graminis tritici (Ggt) in a glasshouse experiment. Adequate nutrition of N (400 mg/pot) and P (100 mg/pot) for wheat plants was required to overcome take-all of wheat grown for 46 days. Severely N and P deficient plants had 60% of their seminal and nodal roots infected by take-all. As the plants responded to increasing levels of N and P, the percentage of infected nodal and seminal roots steadily declined to 0% and 10% for each root system respectively at luxury levels of P and adequate N. In both the seminal and nodal root system, increasing the N and P supply decreased the length of proximal lesions (closest to seed) and increased the length of the root between the crown and the proximal lesion. The seminal root system was more severely infected with take-all than the nodal root system.