Eight Mycosphaerella graminicola isolates were investigated for correlations between pathogenicity and the in vitro production of cell wall-degrading enzymes. Isolate pathogenicity was evaluated in terms of lesion and production of pycnidia in wheat leaves. Additionally, the isolates were compared over time for their ability to produce in vitro significant levels of xylanase (EC 3·2·1·8), β -xylosidase (EC 3·2·1·37), β -1,3-glucanase (EC 3·2·1·6), cellulose (EC 3·2·1·4) and polygalacturonase (EC 3·2·1·15) activities when grown in a liquid medium. Correlation tests and principal component analysis revealed a significant correlation between the in vitro production of xylanase and pectinase and pathogenicity components. Xylanase was correlated to necrosis frequency ( r = 0·795), β -xylosidase was correlated to the mean of the lesion length ( r = − 0·787), whereas polygalacturonase was correlated to the time when 50% of the leaves contained a lesion ( r = 0·776), the lesion frequency ( r = 0·646) and the time when 50% of the leaves showed pycnidia ( r = − 0·711). The results suggest that these two groups of cell wall-degrading enzymes are therefore likely to be key determinants of pathogenicity in M. graminicola .

In this study, two Mycosphaerella graminicola isolates produced a range of cell wall-degrading enzymes (CWDE) in vitro that can potentially degrade wheat cell walls. The influence of three carbon sources on CWDE in vitro production was tested: 1) 1 % galactose (w/v), 2) 1% wheat cell walls (w/v) and 3) a mixture of 1% galactose (w/v) and 1% wheat cell walls (w/v). Six major activities produced by both isolates were detected: xylanase, b-1,3-glucanase, polygalacturonase, cellulase, b-xylosidase and b-galactosidase. Time-course experiments showed that different levels of enzyme activities were obtained with isolates 323 and 94269. These activities levels varied also with the type of carbon source used. Principal Component Analysis showed that the enzyme activities are gathered into two groups. None of the activities of the first group was correlated to the activities of the second group. It also showed that the optimal medium that allowed the production of most of the major activities contained both galactose and wheat cell walls.