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Identification of sources of resistance to an Indian isolate causing Gummy stem blight in watermelon

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Abstract

Gummy stem blight caused by the fungus Stagonosporopsis cucurbitacearum (syn. Didymella bryoniae), is a devastating disease of watermelon all over the world including India. Several strategies are being explored for the management of this disease. Though cultural and chemical management gives partial relief, the development of resistant cultivar is cost-effective and environment friendly. However, the development of resistant varieties for this disease is constrained by the non-availability of suitable resistant sources. Hence, in the present study, we evaluated a panel of watermelon germplasm for the identification of resistance sources against gummy stem blight. A total of 266 genotypes of watermelon comprising of 260 germplasm collections and six commercial checks were evaluated for the identification of resistance sources under artificial screening and natural epiphytotic conditions. A highly virulent watermelon isolate (MN396362) obtained from the research farm of Division of Vegetable Crops, ICAR-IIHR was used for artificial screening, employing mycelial disc inoculation technique. Host response in terms of symptom expression ranging from necrosis in leaves, stem cankers, rotting of the infected stem to complete wilting and death of plants were observed. Among the genotypes evaluated, IIHR-617, IIHR-82, IIHR-545, BIL-53 and IIHR-556 were found to be resistant. These potential sources of resistance identified shall be of great value in developing gummy stem blight resistant varieties of watermelon.

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Acknowledgements

This research work is a part of doctoral degree program of the first author at ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru. The first author acknowledges IARI-New Delhi for providing Ph.D. fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Vegetable Crops, ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

    Sourav Mahapatra, Eguru Sreeenivasa Rao & Budhavaram Varalakshmi

  2. Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

    Sandeep Kumar GM & Subbaraman Sriram

  3. Division of Biotechnology, ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

    Dhoranalapalli Chinnappareddy Lakshmana Reddy

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  1. Sourav Mahapatra
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  2. Eguru Sreeenivasa Rao
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  3. Sandeep Kumar GM
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  4. Subbaraman Sriram
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  5. Budhavaram Varalakshmi
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  6. Dhoranalapalli Chinnappareddy Lakshmana Reddy
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Contributions

ESR and SS conceptualized the experiments. SM performed the screening and carried out the molecular studies for the pathogen under guidance from SKGM, DCLR. SM and ESR performed the statistical analysis and wrote the manuscript. BV and SS made crucial corrections to the manuscript. All the authors have read and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Eguru Sreeenivasa Rao.

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Mahapatra, S., Sreeenivasa Rao, E., Kumar GM, S. et al. Identification of sources of resistance to an Indian isolate causing Gummy stem blight in watermelon. Australasian Plant Pathol. 51, 419–428 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13313-022-00874-9

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