Fig. 6

Z. tritici spores remain virulent after 49 days in soil and can infect plants during rain-splash events. A Wheat was grown in autoclaved soil. Either when the first shoots emerged (d0) or when the plants were 14 days old (d14), the soil was inoculated with Z. tritici blastospores (5 ml of 10⁶ spores/ml per cell of a 24-cell tray). Rainfall was simulated on d14 by watering from a height of 2 m at a rate of 4 l of sterile distilled water per 24-cell tray from a rose head watering can. Negative controls without Z. tritici or without rainfall were included, and brush inoculation (br) on d14 was used as a positive disease control. B Wheat was subjected to simulated rainfall at the indicated intervals after the soil had been inoculated with Z. tritici blastospores (5 ml of 10⁷ spores/ml per cell of a 24-cell tray). Uninoculated soil (‘None’) was used as a negative control. In both A and B, pycnidia per cm² of leaf was calculated for the cotyledon, first and second leaf 28 days after the rain-splash or brush inoculation. Values are means of three independent experiments and error bars show SE. Different letters above bars indicate significant differences in ANOVA with Tukey’s simultaneous comparisons. Small crosses indicate the individual experiment means