Evaluation of diagnostic and quantitative PCR for the identification and severity assessment of eyespot and sharp eyespot in winter wheat

Diagnostic and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) provided clarification of the causes of symptoms and the extent of infection by eyespot (Tapesia spp.) and sharp eyespot (Rhizoctonia cerealis) on winter wheat at early growth stages. Disease assessments made before stem extension, when decisions to apply fungicides are usually made, often did not agree with the pathogen diagnoses using PCR, suggesting that such early visual diagnoses may be unreliable. Visual and PCR diagnoses made on stems in summer generally supported each other, but there were often discrepancies in relating disease severity to amounts of pathogen present when determined by regression analyses of incidence or severity of symptoms on amount of pathogen DNA. Mixed symptoms caused by different pathogens may sometimes have been confounded. Relationships between symptoms and DNA of eyespot pathogens were less clear on some cultivars, often those with least disease. Sharp eyespot symptoms had a stronger relationship to DNA of its pathogen. Significant regressions often accounted for a small percentage of the variance, suggesting either that pathogens not assayed were contributing to symptoms or that lesions were in some cases persisting longer into the season than pathogen DNA. The frequency of pathogen detection before stem extension was a poor predictor of the amounts of pathogen DNA measured later in the season.