Analyses of Interactions of Wheat Cultivars in Tests for Resistance to Pseudocercosporella herpotrichoides

A total of 20 cultivars of winter wheat were tested by ELISA for resistance to Pseudocercosporella herpotrichoides in six environments and three growth stages. In a three-factor statistical analysis, the contribution of the different factors to their respective interactions was studied. The genotype × environment interactions exerted a considerable influence which could be reduced by increasing the number of test locations. Environments with a high disease level were less suited to measuring resistance than those environments with a medium level. Estimates of heritability from 0.54 to 0.78 show that successful selection may be possible using ELISA. Significant correlations of quantitative resistance at different environments were only obtained under similar environmental conditions (the same location, the same year) and with P. herpotrichoides populations of similar composition (the same inoculum). The contributions of the individual cultivars to the genotype/ environment interactions were not significantly different, except for ‘Roazon’ and ‘Rendezvous’. Due to high environmental effects in growth stage H5, the determination of quantitative resistance was more reliable in younger stages (65, 75). Nevertheless, the use of the values from that late stage did not reduce the genetic parameters (σ², h₂) if they were combined with the earlier measurements.