Aecial Host Range of Puccinia substriata var. indica. J. P. Wilson, USDA-ARS Forage and Turf Research Unit, Griffin, GA 30223. S. C. Phatak, Department of Horticulture, University of Georgia Coastal Plain Experiment Station, Tifton 31793, and G. Lovell, USDA-ARS Genetic Resources Unit, Griffin, GA 30223. Plant Dis. 80:806-808. Accepted for publication 21 March 1996. 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, 1996. DOI: 10.1094/PD-80-0806.

Potential aecial hosts of Puccinia substriata var. indica were tested for resistance or susceptibility to better understand their potential role in epidemics of pearl millet rust. Thirty-one accessions of Solanum melongena, each collected from a different country, and accessions of twenty-seven other Solanum species were evaluated. Resistance or susceptibility was determined from natural infection in an isolated field location and inoculations in the greenhouse. All accessions of S. melongena were susceptible, except PI 413784 from Burkina Faso and PI 401533 from the Ivory Coast, countries that are near the center of origin of pearl millet. Newly identified aecial hosts include S. anguivi, S. ferox, S. gilo, S. incanum, S. linaeanum, S. nodiflorum, and S. rostratum. All other Solanum species evaluated were resistant. Accessions of two weed species from the United States, S. americanum and S. aviculare, were resistant and may play no role in the epidemiology of pearl millet rust in the United States.