HOST-RANGE, MATING-TYPE, AND FERTILITY OF PYRICULARIA-GRISEA FROM WHEAT IN BRAZIL

Isolates of Pyricularia grisea collected from wheat in regions of Brazil were inoculated on various gramineous plants to determine their host range. A set of 42 different gramineous plants belonging to nine tribes was analyzed by plant reactions and sporulation potential. The strain from wheat infected gramineous plants of five tribes: Hordeae, Festuceae, Aveneae, Chlorideae, and Agrosteae, but not Japanese differential or Brazilian lowland and upland rice cultivars. Mating types were analyzed by crossing wheat and finger millet strains belonging to two mating types. Fourteen wheat isolates out of 16 were classified as MAT1-1, and one was MAT1-2. Fertility was determined by crossing the wheat strain with strains of other gramineous plants. Mature ascospores were produced when the wheat strain crossed with strains from Eleusine coracana, Brachiaria plantaginea, Setaria italica, and different wheat isolates. Although a rice strain was able to infect wheat seedlings and panicles experimentally, the main wheat strain was suggested to be different from the rice strain and similar to the Eleusine strain.