Cultivar architecture modulates spore dispersal by rain splash: A new perspective to reduce disease progression in cultivar mixtures.

ABSTRACT: Cultivar mixtures can be used to improve the sustainability of disease management within farming systems by growing cultivars that differ in their disease resistance level in the same field. The impact of canopy aerial architecture on rain-splash dispersal could amplify disease reduction within mixtures. We designed a controlled conditions experiment to study single splash-dispersal events and their consequences for disease. We quantified this impact through the spore interception capacities of the component cultivars of a mixture. Two wheat cultivars, differing in their aerial architecture (mainly leaf area density) and resistance to Septoria tritici blotch, were used to constitute pure stands and mixtures with 75% of resistant plants that accounted for 80% of the canopy leaf area. Canopi

SUBMITTER: Vidal T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5687742 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature