Artificial Inoculation of Wheat with Tilletia indica from Mexico and India. M. H. Royer, Research Plant Pathologist, Plant Disease Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Frederick, MD 21701. J. Rytter, Biological Laboratory Technician, Plant Disease Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Frederick, MD 21701. Plant Dis. 69:317-319. Accepted for publication 27 September 1984. 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, 1985. DOI: 10.1094/PD-69-317.

Spring wheat cultivars Alex, Butte, Chris, Olaf, and Waldron were inoculated with sporidia obtained from germinating Tilletia indica teliospores from Mexico and India. Inoculations were performed by injecting sporidial suspensions into the boot and by drenching or atomizing the spikes before anthesis. Inoculations at the boot stage resulted in 35% spike infection; inoculations at heading, in 29% spike infection. Inoculations at the boot stage resulted in 65% of the kernels in an infected spike showing signs of infection; inoculations at heading, in 52% of the kernels showing infection, on the average. All cultivars inoculated were susceptible to one or both of the teliospore collections. Paired inoculations with monosporidial lines obtained from single primary sporidia indicated that at least three mating types were present in the lines isolated from the Indian and Mexican teliospores and that certain Indian isolates were compatible with certain Mexican isolates. There were no apparent differences in the degree of infection caused by sporidia obtained from germinated teliospores of the different collections. Crosses between Indian monosporidial lines appeared to cause higher degrees of infection than crosses between Indian and Mexican lines.