Field assessment of partial resistance to mycosphaerella blight in Pisum subspecies accessions

Abstract

Conner, R. L., Gossen, B. D., Hwang, S. F., Chang, K. F., McRae, K. B. and Penner, W. C. 2012. Field assessment of partial resistance to mycosphaerella blight in Pisum subspecies accessions. Can. J. Plant Sci. 92: 289–296. Mycosphaerella blight, caused by Mycosphaerella pinodes (Berk. & Bloxam) Vestergr., the teleomorph of Ascochyta pinodes Jones, is an important foliar disease of field pea in the major production areas of the world. Partial resistance to mycosphaerella blight has been reported in some field pea cultivars, but, at best, they are only moderately susceptible. A 3-yr field study was conducted to evaluate the mycosphaerella blight reactions of 28 accessions from a number of subspecies of Pisum sativum L. and one accession of P. fulvum Sibth. A few of the accessions carried mutations for the genes af, tl, and st that affect the morphology of the leaflets, stipules and tendrils. Reactions to mycosphaerella blight were characterized based on the mean of the severity ratings taken on the two final assessment dates before the crop matured and also on the change in mycosphaerella blight severity between these two dates. In many of the accessions, severity ratings were similar to that of the moderately susceptible check cultivar, CDC Peko, while a few had high severity ratings similar to those of the susceptible check cultivars. The accession PI 512079, which has small stipules, branched petioles with many leaflets but no tendrils, had the lowest ratings for mycosphaerella blight severity. Four other accessions exhibited the smallest change in mycosphaerella blight severity at the end of the growing season. Differences in leaf morphology likely influenced the change in disease severity, since all the semi-leafless and leafless accessions had smaller changes in mycosphaerella blight severity than the susceptible check cultivars. In a detached leaf assay with two isolates of Mycosphaerella pinodes (Berk. & Bloxam) Vestergr., the smallest lesions formed on PI 512079, but otherwise the results failed to show a relationship with the observed severity values in the field trials.