Influence of Ophiostoma novo-ulmi culture filtrates on callus of elms with different susceptibility to Dutch Elm Disease

Abstract

The long time needed to achieve results in traditional elm breeding programs against Dutch Elm Disease (DED) justifies the search for new selection techniques. In this paper, effects of Ophiostoma novo-ulmi culture filtrates on 20 elm genotypes were assayed, in an attempt to find out whether growth responses were related to their DED resistance level. Callus growth was lower with O. novo-ulmi culture filtrates. However, this response was independent of DED resistance. The influence of fungal media components, present in the control culture filtrates, on the callus hinders the use of these techniques in DED resistance selection.