<i>In vitro</i> and greenhouse evaluation for resistance to early blight of potato isolated from <i>Alternaria alternata</i>

Abstract

Early blight of potato is caused by the fungus Alternaria alternata , one of the most destructive foliar diseases, especially in hot climates under irrigation. In this study, the virus free potato seedlings were obtained from the National Plant Gene Bank of Iran and were inoculated in vitro with a culture filtrate of A. alternate . The leaflets received a 1000-μl droplet of the A. alternata culture filtrate and were inoculated by spraying with a suspension of 10 5 conidia/ml of isolate A. alternata in the greenhouse method. The experimental design was a completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications and seven genotypes, which have been infected with the two leaves of each iteration. In vitro selection of fungal isolates of A. alternata , chlorotic and necrotic symptoms began 1 to 2 days after inoculation, but the assessment of greenhouse symptoms appeared 6-10 days after inoculation. The area under the disease progress curve values were pres ented by analysis of variance (ANO VA), and they were compared using Duncan’s test (a = 0.01%). In both methods, there was a significant difference between the potato genotypes (P < 0.01). For In vitro selection and evaluation greenhouse, Casmos were resistant to at least figure and Marfona genotype had the highest resistance.