Annotation to the Project: «Determination of the new and economically important diseases of wheat in Uzbekistan»

Supervisor of the project: Saidmurat K. Baboev, candidate of biological sciences, Deputy Director to the Institute if Plant Experimental Biology & Genetics; Contact person: Prof. Batyr A. Khasanov, scientific fellow of the laboratory of grain crops genetics

Main goal of cereal growers in Uzbekistan is to provide a population with our own grain. Wheat grain production in Uzbekistan in 2000-s totaled about 3,0 metric tons per ha annually. After gaining independence average wheat yields have increased year by year and during last years it has constantly exceeded 5,0 tons per ha in the irrigated areas.

YearTon per haTotal yield, t ,680, ,029, ,139, ,150, ,665, ,789, ,482, ,905, ,610,000 Wheat grain yields in Uzbekistan in

Wheat grain production has a potential for further increase (with average grain yields up to 8-9 t/ha) and this may be realized if modern agricultural technologies are widely introduced into practice, including reliable control of diseases of this culture..

These diseases include rusts, Septoria leaf blotch, tan spot and root / crown and stem rots. New and emerging diseases of wheat include leaf spots / leaf blights, Fusarium root / crown rots, death of plants with heads and some others. Their occurrence and economic significance are increasing during last years.

At the same time there is a little or no information about fungi that cause these diseases and how pathogens are transferred from plant to plant and to other fields, nothing is known about their overwintering / oversummering and about sizes of yield losses caused by them. Available relevant papers are outdated, published mostly before 1980-s, when wheat has been grown on relatively small, non-irrigated drylands. Preliminary observations have shown that some of these diseases are becoming more widely spread and they can be as dangerous as rusts.

Investigations on the project will include the following steps

1. 1.Organization of the route surveys Route surveys of wheat fields will be annually conducted in the pilot districts of the Tashkent, Sirdarya, Jizzakh and Samarqand Viloyats, two times during a growing season, namely (i) at stem growth stage, and (ii) flag-leaf expanding to full head appearance stage.

1. 1.Organization of the route surveys - Assessment of diseases on crops. - Collection of diseased plants. - Carrying out phytopathological analyses. - Microscopy of diseased samples. - Sowing samples of infected plants on water agar in Petri dishes.

2. Identification of causal agents of wheat diseases The following investigations are planned to be carried out: - Isolation of pure cultures of fungi that cause wheat diseases. - Making single-spore subcultures of isolated pathogenic fungi (if needed). - Identification of the species of the causal fungi, and (if needed) completing Koch’s postulates.

3. Determination of yield loss sizes caused by the most important diseases of wheat Experiments will be conducted on naturally or artificially infected (disease- provocative with a residue of infected plants) fields. Amount of yield losses will be determined comparing yields from unprotected plots with those of the treated with fungicides ones.

4. Development of methods of creation of infection background of wheat diseases The following 3 types of inocula will be tested for creation of artificial infection of leaf spots / leaf blights and root rots: (i) residue of wheat plants infected with diseases, (ii) seeds of oats covered with a mycelium of disease causing fungi; (iii) suspensions of mycelia or mycelia and conidia of the disease causing fungi.

Results expected - New and important fungal diseases of wheat that occur in Uzbekistan will be registered; their occurrence and severity will be determined; - Detailed descriptions of new and important diseases of wheat and their causal agents will be done; - Pure cultures of fungi that cause new and/or important wheat diseases will be deposited at the “Collection of Plant Pathogenic Microorganisms” at the Institute of Plant Experimental Biology and Genetics of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences; - Effects of new and / or important diseases on wheat grain yield will be determined in field experiments; - Efficacy of new spray fungicides will be evaluated against new and / or important diseases of wheat in conditions of Uzbekistan; - Scientific papers will be published based on the results of the research; - Scientifically justified recommendations on control of the most important wheat diseases will be developed; - A book with a title “Wheat Diseases” will be written and prepared for publishing (in Uzbek language).

THANK YOU FOR ATTENTION!