Proceedings of the Septoria Tritici Workshop

Abstract

Septoria tritici is an important pathogen of wheat in the higher rainfall areas of Europe, North and South America, North and East Africa. A septoria leaf blotch workshop took place on 20-24 September 1993 at CIMMYT, Mexico. It was the fifth in a series of septoria workshops and marked the official end of an extremely fruitful cooperative research effort supported by the Government of The Netherlands (DGIS/IPOIDLO) in cooperation with Tel Aviv University (Israel), CIMMYT, and NARS scientists in more than 20 countries where Septoria tritici causes significant losses. The specific goals of the project were to generate resistant germplasm, survey pathogenicity worldwide, train NARS scientists, and exchange of information on this important disease among researchers in the developing countries. Resistance has been incorporated into commercial cultivars, pathogen specialization studied, NARS scientists trained, and communication is strong among the interested researchers. Thus the project achieved its goals to a great degree and the workshops were an integral part of the effort. Research continues for additional resistance genes, on epidemiology, and understanding of changing management practices and its influence on the disease. Although funding for this special project has terminated, CIMMYT and its collaborators will continue to support research on septoria leaf blotch and maintain close contacts with concerned researchers around the world. CIMMYT will also continue to provide septoria leaf blotch resistant germplasm to national programs via the Septoria Monitoring Nursery and other international trials.