Evaluation of Israeli Aegilops and Agropyron Species for Resistance to Wheat Leaf Rust. J. Manisterski, Institute of Cereal Crops Improvement, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. A. Segal (deceased), A. A. Levy, and M. Feldman. Institute of Cereal Crops Improvement, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, and Plant Genetics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel. Plant Dis. 72:941-944. Accepted for publication 5 February 1988. Copyright 1988 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-72-0941.

Leaf rust reaction was tested in 274 accessions from 10 Aegilops and 2 Agropyron species collected from diverse ecogeographical regions in Israel. A high frequency of hypersensitive type resistance was found. Most accessions of A. speltoides and A. variabilis were resistant, most accessions of A. bicornis were susceptible, while other species had different proportions of resistant and susceptible types. Usually, adult plants were more resistant than seedlings at the single-leaf stage. In some species, correlations were found between resistance and ecogeographical parameters such as latitude, altitude, and annual rainfall.