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Global Research Journal of Agricultural and Biological Sciences Vol.3(4) pp.351 –359 October 2012.
Available online http://www.globalresearchjournals.org/?a=journal&id=grjabs
Copyright ©2012 Global Research Journals
Full Length Research.
The effect of seed-borne Microdochium majus and M. nivale infection on early winter wheat seedling growth.
Ian Mitchell Haigh*1 and Martin Christopher Hare
1Charles River, Tranent, Edinburgh, East Lothian, EH33 2NE, Scotland.
Crop and Environment Sciences, Harper Adams University College, Newport, Shropshire, TF10 8NB, UK
* corresponding author, tel: 01353 741951, fax: 01875 618739, ian.haigh@crl.com
Abstract
Microdochium majus and M. nivale can cause seedling blight of cereals in maritime climates. Experiments were conducted to test whether seed-borne M. majus and M. nivale infection affects early winter wheat seedling growth. For 7 winter wheat seed lots, seed-borne Microdochium spp. did not consistently affect rate of imbibition or germination at 15 oC and 5 oC under water potentials of 0 MPa and -1 MPa, significant effects were observed at 5 oC. Seed-borne Microdochium spp. infection had no significant effect on rate of seedling emergence from soil at 10 oC but allowing seedlings to develop to GS 12 demonstrated that when present, more severely diseased seedlings emerged slower than slightly diseased or healthy seedlings. Increased disease severity significantly reduced the first leaf lengths for 4 of the 7 seed lots but healthy seedlings did not have significantly longer first leaves than slightly diseased seedlings. Although performed on a limited number of seed lots, this investigation suggests that seed-borne M. majus and M. nivale can affect all aspects of early seedling growth, particular effects are probably due to the location of inoculum within individual seeds.
Key words: seedling blight, Microdochium, temperature, water potential, winter wheat.