Abstract

Fungal diseases are one of the major causes of losses on wheat yield in the world. Recent studies on plant defense mechanisms have highlighted the role of amino acids and total polyphenols in disease tolerance. Thus, with the objective of identifying on the basis of morphological and physiological variables the high-performance wheat accessions in high and low altitude, we characterized sixteen wheat accessions via quantification of polyphenols (TPP) and amino acids (AA) and identified fungal diseases affecting wheat in Centre Cameroon. Using the set of the three hexaploid wheat cultivars where the 11 microsatellite markers data was available, a total of 29 alleles were detected among cultivars and the number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 3 with an average of 2.64. Gene diversity ranged from 0.44 to 0.67 with an average of 0.59, increasing with the number of alleles. Microsatellites markers used had an average Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) value of 0.50, indicating that these markers are useful and will make a contribution to the studies in hexaploid wheat. The assessment of wheat plant to disease tolerance permitted to identify Septoria, Fusarium wilt; tanned spot and powdery mildew in high and low altitude. Analyzes of TPP and AA have made it possible to discriminate accessions that are tolerant to diseases. Hence, accession Atilla 1 was highly tolerant and had high levels of TPP (3.5 ± 0.36 μg/mg) and AA (40.1 ± 1.21 μg/mg) while the accession Sup 152 highly susceptible to disease had low levels (2.3 ± 0.1 and 2.1 ± 0.36 μg/mg, respectively). This study will contribute to the extension of wheat in areas where conditions similar to the study sites will be localized.

Key words: Amino acids, bread wheat, high and low altitude, fungal diseases, polyphenols.