Quantitative resistance is likely to be more durable than major gene
resistance for controlling Septoria tritici blotch (STB) on wheat. Earlier
studies hypothesized that resistance affecting the degree of host damage, as
measured by the percentage of leaf area covered by STB lesions, is distinct
from resistance that affects pathogen reproduction, as measured by the
density of pycnidia produced within lesions. We tested this hypothesis using
a collection of 335 elite European winter wheat cultivars that was naturally
infected by a diverse population of Zymoseptoria tritici in a replicated field
experiment. We used automated image analysis of 21,420 scanned wheat
leaves to obtain quantitative measures of conditional STB intensity that were
precise, objective, and reproducible. These measures allowed us to explicitly
separate resistance affecting host damage from resistance affecting pathogen
reproduction, enabling us to confirm that these resistance traits are largely
independent. The cultivar rankings based on host damage were different from
the rankings based on pathogen reproduction, indicating that the two forms of
resistance should be considered separately in breeding programs aiming
to increase STB resistance. We hypothesize that these different forms of
resistance are under separate genetic control, enabling them to be recombined
to form new cultivars that are highly resistant to STB. We found a significant
correlation between rankings based on automated image analysis and
rankings based on traditional visual scoring, suggesting that image analysis
can complement conventional measurements of STB resistance, based
largely on host damage, while enabling a much more precise measure of
pathogen reproduction. We showed that measures of pathogen reproduction
early in the growing season were the best predictors of host damage late in
the growing season, illustrating the importance of breeding for resistance that
reduces pathogen reproduction in order to minimize yield losses caused by
STB. These data can already be used by breeding programs to choose wheat
cultivars that are broadly resistant to naturally diverse Z. tritici populations
according to the different classes of resistance.