Claviceps purpurea causing ergot maintains to be a problem in commercial cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS)-based hybrid rye growing. The fungal spores compete with pollen during flowering and ergot incidence is reduced in highly pollen-shedding stands. This study was carried out to identify maternal differences in ergot infection in the absence of pollen. Ten male-sterile single crosses were tested by needle and spray inoculation and kept unfertilized in up to four field sites (Germany, Austria) and three greenhouse experiments, respectively, in two years. A medium to high correlation was observed between field (needle inoculation) and greenhouse (spray inoculation) experiments. The environments (=location × year combinations) differed in their ergot severity and ergot incidence. Significant (P ≤ 0.05) genotypic and genotype × environment interaction variances were detected for the unfertilized male-sterile single crosses in both test systems for both traits. The single cross K_4 showed a significantly lower ergot severity averaged across all environments, thus being more resilient to ergot than the other genotypes. In conclusion, spray and needle inoculation are suitable for testing unfertilized male-sterile rye materials, testing across several environments (locations, years) is definitely necessary. Selection of specific females might give the potential for further reducing ergot contamination in hybrid rye in future. The frequency of such genotypes within larger breeding populations needs to be analyzed.

Claviceps purpurea导致麦角仍然是商业细胞质雄性不育 (CMS) 为基础的杂交黑麦生长的一个问题。真菌孢子在开花期间与花粉竞争，并且在高度花粉脱落的林分中麦角发生率降低。进行这项研究是为了确定在没有花粉的情况下母体感染麦角的差异。在两年内，分别在多达四个田间（德国、奥地利）和三个温室试验中通过针头和喷雾接种测试了十个雄性不育单杂交种并保持未受精。在田间（针头接种）和温室（喷雾接种）实验之间观察到中度至高度相关性。环境（=地点×年份组合）的麦角严重程度和麦角发生率不同。显着（P ≤ 0.05）在两种性状的两个测试系统中检测到未受精雄性不育单交的基因型和基因型×环境相互作用方差。单杂交 K_4 在所有环境中平均显示出显着降低的麦角严重程度，因此比其他基因型对麦角更具弹性。总之，喷雾和针头接种适用于测试未受精的雄性不育黑麦材料，跨多个环境（地点、年份）进行测试绝对是必要的。选择特定的雌性可能会在未来进一步减少杂交黑麦中的麦角污染。需要分析这种基因型在更大的繁殖种群中的频率。