Reaction of corn lines to bacterial leaf streak

Abstract

Abstract The objective of this work was to select experimental corn lines genetically resistant to the bacterial leaf streak caused by Xanthomonas vasicola pv. vasculorum, in two growing seasons. The treatments were carried out in an experimental randomized block design in the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 growing seasons, under a covered environment, with open ventilation, with four replicates. Seven lines resistant to and seven susceptible to foliar diseases were evaluated, in addition to two commercial hybrids used as checks. At the corn flowering stage, an artificial inoculation containing 3.78x1010 CFU mL−1 of bacterial suspension was performed, and disease incidence and severity were assessed, based on a diagrammatic scale, every seven days. From these evaluations, the areas under the disease progress curve for each line were calculated, and individual and joint analyses of variance were performed. There is genetic variability among the corn genotypes for reaction to bacterial leaf streak, with a significant effect for the areas under the disease progress curve for incidence (AUDPCI) and severity (AUDPCS) between genotypes and between growing seasons, and for the genotype x season interaction. Lines LV1 and L14 are possible source genotypes for genetic resistance to the bacterial leaf streak.