*2.1. Experimental Site and Design*

The experiment was carried out at the Pailou experiment station, Nanjing Agricultural University (32◦1N, 118◦15E) during the wheat growing season of 2017–2018. Nannong 0686 wheat with high susceptibility to disease was grown in greenhouses. We planted 24 pots (280 mm × 280 mm × 500 mm) with a density of ten seeds per pot. Eight pots were health for control, eight for inoculation at the jointing stage, and the residual eight pots were put separately in the greenhouse for inoculation at booting stage. At the two growth stages, the infected wheat strains were used to shake off spores to inoculate the wheat plant in the pot, then they were placed horizontally in the pot, and all of them were incubated in a controlled environment at a temperature of 25 ◦C and at 80% relative humidity for 72 h.
