RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ORIGIN OF EUROPEAN LANDRACES AND THE LEVEL OF PARTIAL RESISTANCE TO WHEAT LEAF RUST

The reaction to leaf rust of 33 European spring-wheat landrace selections was assessed in the field and in the greenhouse to study the relationship between levels of partial resistance and levels of leaf rust at the origin of the landrace selections. The selections were classified into three groups according to the mean annual damage observed at the collection site. For each group of selections with high-infection types the mean disease-severity, area under disease progress curve and latency period were assessed. The data suggest that there is a greater likelihood of finding partial resistance in selections that come from locations with a high or intermediate mean annual damage as they displayed lower disease severity, lower area according to a disease-progress curve and a longer latency period than the selections from locations with low mean annual damage.