Australasian Plant Pathology (2019) 48, 101-113

R.H. R. Dadu, R. Ford, P. Sambasivam, K. Street and D. Gupta (2019)
Identification of novel Ascochyta lentis resistance in a global lentil collection using a focused identification of germplasm strategy (FIGS)
Australasian Plant Pathology 48 (2), 101-113
Abstract: The Australian lentil breeding program is historically genetically narrow and recent reports suggests a loss of resistance to Ascochyta lentis within resistant cultivars such as Northfield and Nipper. There is evidence that the pathogen population is becoming more virulent on other widely adopted cultivars, thus there is an urgent need to identify novel resistance sources that may be transferred into the cultigen. To reduce the substantial economic and time commitment in this search, a Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy (FIGS) was applied. This entailed exploring potential association between collection site environment and climatic conditions favouring A. lentis development, to predict regions imposing favourable selection towards A. lentis resistance. Accordingly, a subset of 87 landraces (originating from 16 countries) with highest likelihood for A. lentis resistance was selected from 4576 accessions held by the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Morrocco collection. Significant variation for resistance was detected within the subset using completely randomized and replicated controlled climate bioassays with a highly virulent Australian A. lentis isolate, FT13037. Genotype IG 207 expressed the lowest percent area of symptomatic tissue and a further 12 genotypes demonstrated moderate resistance. Furthermore, IG 207 recorded lowest mean disease score against four other highly aggressive isolates and performed better than the currently used best resistance sources, ILL 7537 and Indianhead. In addition, delayed pre-penetration behaviour of isolate FT13038 on IG 207 leaflets indicated discovery through the FIGS technique of a novel and highly effective A. lentis resistance source.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Rebecca Ford

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
resistance/tolerance/defence of host

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Ascochyta lentis	Lentil (Lens culinaris)