AECIAL HOST-RANGE OF PUCCINIA-SUBSTRIATA VAR INDICA

Potential aecial hosts of Puccinia substriata var. indica were tested for resistance or susceptibility to better understand their potential role in epidemics of pearl millet rust. Thirty-one accessions of Solan um melongena, each collected from a different country, and accessions of twenty-seven other Solanum species were evaluated. Resistance or su sceptibility was determined from natural infection in an isolated fiel d location and inoculations in the greenhouse. All accessions of S. me longena were susceptible, except PI 413784 from Burkina Faso and PI 40 1533 from the Ivory Coast, countries that are near the center of origi n of pearl miller. Newly identified aecial hosts include S. anguivi, S . ferox, S. gilo, S. incanum, S. linaeanum, S. nodiflorum, and S. rost ratum. All other Solanum species evaluated were resistant. Accessions of two weed species from the United States, S. americanum and S. avicu lare, were resistant and may play no role in the epidemiology of pearl millet rust in the United States.