Evaluation of Turkish wild Emmers (Triticum dicoccoides Koern.) and wheat varieties cultivars for resistance to the root lesion nematodes (Pratylenchus thornei and Pratylenchus neglectus)

Root-lesion nematodes (RLN; Pratylenchus thornei and Pratylenchus neglectus) are serious plant parasitic nematodes that attack wheat roots and cause significant losses in grain quality and quantity worldwide. They are widely distributed in Turkish wheat growing areas and can be only controlled by growing resistant cultivars and non-host crops. There is no commercial available a wheat cultivar identified as completely resistant to RLN, so that, the breeding programs contain moderately resistant parents to incorporate this trait in high yielding adapted wheat germplasm. The objective of this research was to evaluate some Turkish wild Emmers (Triticum dicoccoides) and national spring wheat varieties for resistant to P. thornei and P. neglectus. In the experiments, 32 wild Emmers and 42 wheat cultivars were inoculated with P. thornei or P. neglectus individuals and grown under controlled conditions in a growth room for 9 weeks. The results showed that 25 and 35 wheat varieties were moderately resistant to P. thornei and P. neglectus, respectively. In total, 17 lines exhibiting multiple resistance reactions to both nematodes were in the same group with the check lines (P<0.05). The identified resistant wheat accessions showed improved levels of RLN resistance over current parents and could serve as an excellent genetic pool to be used in an efficient Turkish wheat-breeding programme.