Breeding Science (1996) 46, 261-268

Michio Kanbe, Hironori Koga, Fumihiro Fujimoto, Kenji Okumura and Kazuhiko Mizuno (1996)
[Growth conditions of alfalfa for screening of resistance to Sclerotinia trifoliorum and microscopic observations of infected tissues]
Breeding Science 46 (3), 261-268
Abstract: Sclerotinia crown and stem rot caused by Sclerotinia trifoliorum Eriks. is a serious disease of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). Alfalfa plants of all ages are susceptible to this disease, but the damage is most severe at the seedling stage. Two experiments were carried out to determine the critical seedling stage and growth conditions under which the resistance was expressed most strongly among varieties and strains of alfalfa. Infected tissues were observed cytologically in individuals of selected SR-strains and commercial varieties. They were inoculated with the cultured hyphae of two isolates, one from the Aichi field and the other from the Tochigi field. When alfalfa varieties and strains grown under the low temperature/short day regime were inoculated with Sclerotinia trifoliorum, all of them showed low survival rates in younger plants less than 6-wk-old, but variable rates in 10-wk-old plants, and the 10-wk-old plants of selected strains survived better than commercial varieties.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
(original language: Japanese)
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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.
	Sclerotinia trifoliorum	Alfalfa/lucerne (Medicago sativa)	Japan