Bacterial wilt resistance in kidney beans

Abstract

Bacterial wilt, caused by Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens pv. flaccumfaciens, is a widespread problem of dry beans on the Canadian prairies and is listed as a quarantine disease by some countries. The development of resistant cultivars is one of the most effective methods for controlling bacterial wilt. Fourteen kidney bean cultivars were screened against the three variants (yellow, orange and purple) of C. flaccumfaciens pv. flaccumfaciens. High levels of resistance to the three variants were observed in the light red kidney bean cultivars AC Litekid, Chinook 2000 and Redkanner as well as the dark red kidney bean cultivars Cabernet and Red Hawk. These five resistant kidney bean cultivars should be useful sources of bacterial wilt resistance in dry bean breeding programs. Neither of the two white kidney bean cultivars tested consistently showed high levels of resistance to all of the color variants of the bacterial wilt pathogen. Key words: Phaseolus vulgaris, kidney bean, bacterial wilt, Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens pv. faccumfaciens, yellow variant, orange variant, purple variant, resistance