EFFECTS OF THE INTERACTION OF FUSARIUM HEAD BLIGHT AND STRIPE RUST ON WHEAT YIELD PARAMETERS

Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused mostly by Fusarium graminearum Schwabe and stripe rust caused by Puccinia sfriiformis are two most destructive diseases of wheat crop infecting ear and leaf respectively. Their independent effects on wheat yield are clear, but the effect of interaction between them is less reported. In the present study, the F2 population derived from the cross combination L661 / L693 and PCA analysis was employed to estimate the influence of the interaction between FHB and stripe rust on yield parameters including GPS, GWS and TGW. The results showed that FHB has the larger effect on SGW and the smaller GPS as compared to stripe rust, and that the independent effects of both FHB and stripe rust on all yield parameters were significant at p = 0.01, but that of the interaction between them was more significant than both independent effects. In addition, comparing the difference in the effect on wheat yield between FHB and stripe rust indicated that the influence on wheat yield of FHB was underestimated in the past, possibly because many scientists paid more attention on the effects of FHB on quality rather than yield.