The investigation on wheat was conducted with the objective to study
variability for spot blotch resistance caused by B. sorokiniana in the
wheat germplasm lines and to find out the distribution of resistance
across various height and maturity groups. Observations were recorded
for disease severity (%) as well as using 0-9 scale. Disease was rated
three times i.e. at growth stages 69, 77 and 83 (Zadoks et.al.1974) to
calculate AUDPC. Plant height, days to maturity and test weight was also
recorded for each genotype. A wide variability for resistance to spot
blotch was observed in the wheat lines screened.15 lines were found to
have resistant. The proportion of moderately resistant, moderately
susceptible and susceptible lines were 47%, 43% and 6% respectively.The
useful resistant lines having dwarf stature and early days to maturity
were 15. These lines can be exploited in crossing programme to
developing spot blotch resistant early maturing lines suited to rice
wheat cropping system of NEPZ.Differential reaction was also observed in
same line that supported the idea of independent gene control.