Tan spot, caused by the fungus Drechslera tritici-repentis, is of worldwide occurrence and one of them main diseases affecting the wheat culture. In Brazil, tan spot is present in every crop season and may reduce grain yield by more than 40%. The great adaptability of this disease to diverse environments may be related to the capability of spores to germinate at different temperatures, which was examined in this experiment conducted at UPF, in 2011. Conidial suspensions (350 µL) were placed onto Petri plates containing water-agar medium and incubated in a BOD-type chamber, in the presence and absence of light, at -5, 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40ºC, during 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 hours. The experiment was conducted twice, in a completely randomized design, with four replicates. Conidia germinated either in the presence or in the absence of light. Germination was null at -5ºC or 40ºC. It was detected after 2h and increased with the incubation time. Second-degree polynomials were used to estimate maximum germination at 19ºC and 9.5h of incubation. There was predominance of bipolar germination (frequency of 45.0%), followed by intercalar (33.5%) and unipolar (21.5%) germination. The obtained results showed a large temperature range for D. tritici-repentis conidial germination, which may partially explain the widespread distribution of this fungus.
Triticum aestivum; tan spot; spores; light regimes
