2.1 Plant and fungal material
Highly susceptible wheat cultivar Dongxuan 3 was obtained from Institute
of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China.T. laevis isolate was isolated from Henan province, China andT. controversa was gifted by Blair Goates, the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS),
USA. T. laevis was propagated in water agar medium (20 g/liter
agar powder), while T. controversa was propagated in soil agar
medium (20 g agar powder, 75 g soil in a liter distilled water) and
autoclaved for pouring the media into sterilized plates. T.
laevis plates were incubated at 16 °C in a 24 h light in incubator (MLR
352H, Panasonic, USA) after covering with parafilm for 7 days
incubation. Mycelium production were observed under an automated invert
fluorescence microscope (IX83, Olympus, Japan). Hyphae were collected
with distilled water and used to inoculate wheat plants. The same method
of incubation was adopted for T. controversa except the cultured
plates were kept at 5 °C for 60 days.