Further studies on the Victorian biotype of the cereal cyst nematode (Heterodera avenae)

Abstract

Seven populations of the cereal cyst nematode (Heterodera avenae Woll.) from the Mallee and Wimmera districts of Victoria, were tested for their variation in pathogenicity, using a wide range of cereal species and cultivars. Avena sterilis (Cc4658), and the barleys Morocco (C13902), Marocaine 079 (C18334), and Martin 403-2 were resistant to all populations, whereas all the other cereals tested were susceptible. The three wheats, Loros (AUS11577), Psathias (AUS881), and spring wheat (AUS10894), supported fewer cysts than the susceptible standard. They may, therefore, have some potential as parents in a wheat resistance breeding program, in the absence of better sources of resistance. The results confirm the presence of only one biotype of H. avenae in Victoria, and although it is unlike any of the five European biotypes, it is similar to that from Rajasthan, India.