Barley worldwide is affected seriously by Fusarium seedling blight (FSB) and Fusarium head blight (FHB) diseases caused by the Fusarium species. The objective of this study was to facilitate the resistance of hulled and hull-less barley at different growth stages to F. culmorum according to direct parameters: disease rating (DR), fresh weight of leaves and roots, kernel weight per spike, kernel number per spike, plump kernels, and indirect parameters - chlorophyll a fluorescence (CF). Plate assay, greenhouse and field tests were performed on 30 spring barley doubled haploid (DH) lines and their parents infected with Fusarium culmorum. Direct parameters proved that hulled genotypes show less symptoms. Most studied chlorophyll a fluorescence (CF) parameters (apart from DIo/CS - amount of energy dissipated from PSII for laboratory test, TRo/CS - amount of excitation energy trapped in PSII reaction centers, ETo/CS - amount of energy used for electron transport and RC/CS - number of active reaction centres in the state of fully reduced PSII reaction center in field experiment) were significantly affected by F. culmorum infection. In all experiments, hulled genotypes had higher values of CF parameters compared to hull-less ones. Significant correlations were detected between direct and indirect parameters and also between various environments. It was revealed that ABS/CS, TRo/CS, and RC/CS have significant positive correlation in greenhouse test and field experiment. Significant correlations suggest the possibility of applying the CF parameters in selection of barley DH lines resistant to F. culmorum infection.
Keywords: Fusarium head blight; Fusarium seedling blight; chlorophyll a fluorescence; fungal infection; spring barley.