Plant Pathology (1999) 48, 402-407

C. Damgaard and B.J. Nielsen (1999)
The effect of fungal density on fungicide dose-response curves in barley powdery mildew (Erysiphe graminis f.sp. hordei)
Plant Pathology 48 (3), 402-407
Abstract: The effect of inoculation density on fungicide dose–response curves and the estimated ED₅₀ value (the fungicide concentration needed to halve the infected leaf area relative to the infected area of leaves that had not been treated with a fungicide) were investigated theoretically, and predictions were tested experimentally using powdery mildew of barley (Erysiphe graminis [syn. Blumeria graminis] f.sp. hordei). A host leaf was assumed to consist of a number of independent compartments, in each of which only a single fungal spore could germinate successfully. The number of fungal spores landing in a compartment was assumed to be Poisson-distributed. The spores were assumed to vary in their sensitivity toward a fungicide, and the sensitivity of the spore population was assumed to be normally distributed around a mean sensitivity. Under these assumptions, the ED₅₀ value was shown to be a positively biased estimate of the mean sensitivity in the fungal population, and the bias increased with inoculum density. Consequently, the estimated ED₅₀ value is expected to vary between experiments and laboratories if the inoculation density varies over a considerable range. The correlation between inoculum density and estimated ED₅₀ value is expected to be strongest when the assayed fungal population consists of several genotypes differing in sensitivity. This expectation was tested by estimating the ED₅₀ values for one barley powdery mildew isolate at different inoculation densities for three different fungicides. These ED₅₀ values were positively correlated strongly with the inoculum density for fenpropimorph and more weakly for triadimenol, whereas no correlation was observed for propiconazole.
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Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
control - general

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Blumeria graminis	Barley (Hordeum vulgare)	Denmark