Variation in the expression of specificity in two maize diseases

Summary Ten inbred lines from the open-pollinated maize variety Jarvis were selected from 51 randomly collected lines to represent a wide range of susceptibility to one isolate each of Bipolaris maydis or Colletotrichum graminicola. Ten isolates of each pathogen were selected for a range of virulence on a maize line with average resistance. Resistance and virulence ratings were based on lengths of lesions that developed on leaves of greenhouse-grown seedlings inoculated with 5 l droplets of suspensions of known spore concentrations. For each disease the ten maize lines were inoculated in all possible combinations with the ten pathogen isolates. The experiment was run six times with each pathogen. Analysis of variance for individual trials indicated a significant interaction between maize lines and B. maydis isolates in all six trials and between maize lines and C. graminicola isolates in four of six trials. For both diseases. the combined analysis over all six trials revealed no significant interaction. Apparently the expression of specificity in these host-pathogen interactions is variable.