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.