Sources of resistance against post-flowering stalk rots of maize

The post-flowering stalk rots (PFSR) are a complex disease, which are widely distributed in almost all the maize growing regions across the globe. A number of fungi are involved in causing decay of the pith resulting in pre-mature wilting of the plants. Most of the commercially grown cultivars have shown a high level of disease incidence at the grain filling stage. A systematic breeding programme on PFSR was initiated in India in collaboration with Asian Regional Maize Program of CIMMYT. Under this programme, germplasm screening was carried out at four ‘hot spot’ locations in India for different diseases: Hyderabad (Cephalosporium maydis), Udaipur (Fusarium moniliforme), Ludhiana and Delhi (Macrophomina phaseolina). Across the locations, promising maize genotypes were artificially inoculated using the toothpick method, year after year; resistant plants were selfed to derive resistant inbreds. After extensive screening, three resistant lines, namely PFSR-13-5, JCY2-2-4-1-1-1-1 and JCY3-7-1-2-1-b-1, were identified. In addition, the resistance level of five pools/populations; (PFSR (Y)-C1, PFSR (white), Extra-early (White), P-100, P-300 and P-345) was upgraded to an acceptable level. These genotypes may prove useful for utilisation in breeding cultivars for resistance to PFSR.