Screening of Cucurbita moschata Duchesne Germplasm for Crown Rot Resistance to Floridian Isolates of Phytophthora capsici Leonian

Abstract

Phytophthora capsici causes seedling death, crown and root rot, fruit rot, and foliar blight on squash and pumpkins (Cucurbita spp. L.). A total of 119 C. moschata accessions, from 39 geographic locations throughout the world, and a highly susceptible butternut squash cultivar, Butterbush, were inoculated with a suspension of three highly virulent P. capsici isolates from Florida to identify resistance to crown rot. Mean disease rating (DR) of the C. moschata collection ranged from 1.4 to 5 (0 to 5 scale with 0 resistant and 5 susceptible). Potential resistant and tolerant individuals were identified in the C. moschata collection. A set of 18 PIs from the original screen were rescreened for crown rot resistance. This rescreen produced similar results as the original screen (r = 0.55, P = 0.01). The accessions PI 176531, PI 458740, PI 442266, PI 442262, and PI 634693 were identified with lowest rates of crown infection with a mean DR less than 1.0 and/or individuals with DR = 0. Further selections from these accessions could be made to develop Cucurbita breeding lines and cultivars with resistance to crown rot caused by P. capsici.