A CORN SEEDLING ASSAY FOR RESISTANCE TO FUSARIUM-MONILIFORME

Fusarium moniliforme, mating population A, causes various disease symptoms and produces several mycotoxins on com. This fungus is one of the causal agents of seedling blight of corn. A test was designed to determine the pathogenicity of F. moniliforme isolates and to test for resistance in corn against this pathogen. The test is conducted conveniently under laboratory conditions. After a 21-day period, either a fungal isolate or a corn cultivar can be tested for pathogenicity or seedling resistance, respectively. The results, obtained from a limited number of corn cultivars, established that there is resistance to the fungus at the seedling stage. Inbreds were more resistant than parental types used in the initial crosses. The data did not suggest a tendency towards physiological specialization within a selected group of isolates from mating population A.