A Corn Seedling Assay for Resistance to Fusarium moniliforme. CHARLES W. BACON, Toxicology and Mycotoxins Research Unit, USDA-ARS, Russell Research Center, P.O. Box 5677, Athens, GA 3061. DOROTHY M. HINTON, and MICHAEL D. RICHARDSON, Toxicology and Mycotoxins Research Unit, USDA-ARS, Russell Research Center, P.O. Box 5677, Athens, GA 30613. Plant Dis. 78: 302-305. Accepted for publication 8 November 1993. 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, 1994. DOI: 10.1094/PD-78-0302.

Fusarium moniliforme, mating population A, causes various disease symptoms and produces several mycotoxins on corn. This fungus is one of the causal agents of seedling blight of corn. A test was designed to determine the pathogenicity of F. moniliforme isolates and to test for resistance in corn against this pathogen. The test is conducted conveniently under laboratory conditions. After a 21-day period, either a fungal isolate or a corn cultivar can be tested for pathogenicity or seedling resistance, respectively. The results, obtained from a limited number of corn cultivars, established that there is resistance to the fungus at the seedling stage. Inbreds were more resistant than parental types used in the initial crosses. The data did not suggest a tendency towards physiological specialization within a selected group of isolates from mating population A.

Keyword(s): corn disease, Gibberella fujikuroi, mycotoxin, seedborne, toxic corn, Zea mays