Euphytica (2003) 130, 341-347

Barbarita Companioni, Mayda Arzola, Yania Rodríguez, Marais Mosqueda, María Cristina Pérez, Orlando Borrás, José Carlos Lorenzo and Ramón Santos (2003)
Use of culture-derived Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense, race 1 filtrates for rapid and non-destructive in vitro differentiation between resistant and susceptible clones of field-grown banana
Euphytica 130 (3), 341-347
Abstract: Banana and plantain are among the most important food crops in developing countries but production is threatened by increasing virulent forms of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense. Chemical control is not economically effective and, therefore, breeding programs are necessary. Traditional field studies of new genotype resistance to this disease are time-consuming and destructive. Therefore, we developed a rapid and non-destructive procedure to differentiate field-grown banana resistant from susceptible clones. This procedure implicates application of culture filtrates of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense race 1 onto banana leaves. The relationship between duration of the fungal in vitro incubation, and the fungal culture fresh mass, the culture filtrate absorbency, and the Gross Michel (susceptible cultivar) leaf lesion area (after application of the culture filtrate) were similar and at 24 day-incubation the highest values of the recorded indicators were observed. A comparison between Gross Michel and FHIA-01 (resistant) was also performed. The most relevant differences between cultivars were observed at 48 hours after application of the culture filtrate, and in the middle-aged leaves. The position of the culture filtrate application in the leaf limb (distal, middle, proximal) was not determinant. A wider comparison among banana cultivars confirmed previous results informed by other researchers using different systems to study this plant-fungus interaction. Such a confirmation validates the effectiveness of the procedure described here to select rapid and non-destructively banana resistance to this disease at field level.
(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): Barbarita Companioni

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

---

Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Panama disease of banana	Banana/plantain (Musa)
	Fusarium oxysporum