Characterization of Partial Resistance to Black Spot Disease of Rosa sp.

Abstract

Black spot disease, caused by the fungus Diplocarpon rosae Wolf, is one of the most serious diseases of garden roses. Both complete (vertical) resistance conditioned by dominant Rdr genes and partial (horizontal) resistance conditioned by multiple genes have been described. The use of resistant rose cultivars would reduce the demand of agrochemical applications. The characterization of 16 genotypes for resistance to black spot using two laboratory assays, the detached leaf assay (DLA) and the whole plant inoculation (WPI) approach, indicated that these techniques were well correlated. Thus, either method could be used to assess the resistance of the plants to black spot. Fifteen diploid hybrid populations from 10 parents segregating for partial (horizontal) resistance to black spot derived from Rosa wichuraiana ‘Basye’s Thornless’ (RW) were assessed for black spot resistance by quantifying the percentage of the leaf area with symptoms (LAS) and lesion length (LL) measured by the diameter of the largest lesion per leaf in DLAs. The narrow-sense heritability of partial resistance to black spot as measured by LAS and LL data of DLA was estimated to be from 0.28 to 0.43 when calculated with a genetic variance analysis and from 0.74 to 0.86 when generated from offspring–midparent regression. This suggests that the development of rose cultivars with high levels of stable partial resistance to black spot is a feasible approach for the rose industry.