Resistance of cultivars of Avena sativa to, and host range of, an oat-attacking race of Ditylenchus dipsaci in South Australia

Abstract

The host range of a population of Ditylenchus dipsaci in South Australia showed that the oat race was present. The commercial oat cultivars, Algerian, Elan, Avon and Cassia, possessed useful resistance to this race in field and laboratory trials. Popular commercial oat cultivars, West and Swan, were susceptible. Rotational crops such as Vicia faba (field beans) and Pisum sativum (peas) were susceptible but clovers (Trifolium spp.), lucerne (Medicago sativa) and grasses (Lolium rigidum) had some resistance in a laboratory trial. Data on tolerance were sparse. Tolerance was related to numbers of nematodes (resistance) in the host. The difference between assessment of tolerance to nematodes which undergo a single generation in a season (e.g. Heterodera spp., Globodera sp.) and those undergoing several generations (e.g. Ditylenchus spp.) is discussed.