Marwa Hassine¹, Mokhtar Baraket², Mouna Guesmi³, Amor Yahyaoui⁴, Rezgui Salah¹ and Walid Hamada¹

1. Department of agronomy and plant biotechnology, National Institute of Agriculture of Tunis

2. Institute of rural engineering, Water and Forests

3. Regional Field Crops Research Center Beja, Tunisia

4. International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico

 

 

Abstract: Four durum wheat (Triticum turgidum var. durum L.) cultivars with various susceptibility levels were assessed for their respective response to Zymoseptoria tritici using two Stimulators of Natural Defense (SND) derived from algae extract and a polysaccharides. The test was carried out at two locations in North Western Tunisia representing sub-humid (Beja) and semi-arid (Oued Mliz) climatic zones. Disease severity, assessed using double digit scale, and thousand kernel weights were measured. Preliminary results showed that the resistant cultivar Salim had 6% yield advantage over the susceptible cultivar (Karim). The increase in thousand kernel weights associated with SND treatments t varied from 5 to 18% with Salim and Karim, respectively. The SND treatments showed that the severity to Z. tritici of resistant (Salim) and susceptible (Karim) cultivars was reduced by 11% and 9% than the controls. This result suggests that both elicitors tested could be perceived as key factors of the pathogenicity of Zymoseptoria tritici of durum wheat.

 

Key words: Karim, Salim, SDN, Triticum durum, Zymoseptoria tritici