VIEW ARTICLE

Resistance

The Effect of Wounding and High-Pressure Spray Inoculation on the Smut Reactions of Sugarcane Clones. Jack L. Dean, Research plant pathologist, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, U. S. Sugarcane Field Station, Canal Point, FL 33438; Phytopathology 72:1023-1025. Accepted for publication 1 December 1981. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1982.. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-72-1023.

Sugarcane was inoculated with the smut fungus, Ustilago scitaminea, in a factorial experiment involving sugarcane clones, methods of applying inoculum, and wound states. A significant interaction of clones and wound states indicated at least two components of resistance, one that is circumvented by wounding, and one that is not. The relative importance of the two barriers varied among clones. One of the barriers to infection probably depends upon bud morphology, and the other upon host physiology. Among clones, inoculation of wounded, but not of unwounded, buds resulted in a significant negative correlation between minimum latent period and proportion of plants infected.