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Title: SCREENING FOR STEM ROT OF POTATO (ERWINIA CAROTOVORA SUBSPECIES ATROSEPTICA) RESISTANCE

Author
item BAINS, P - ALBERTA AG. FOOD & RUR.CA
item BISHT, V - ALBERTA AG. FOOD & RUR.CA
item LYNCH, D - AGRIC. & AGRI-FOOD, CA
item KAWCHUK, L - AGRIC. & AGRI-FOOD, CA
item Helgeson, John

Submitted to: American Journal of Potato Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/5/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The bacterium, Erwinia carotovara subspecies atroseptica, causes a stem rot disease of potato that can be of serious consequence, particularly in warm, wet climates. The bacterium can also cause a tuber rot that can result in serious loss. There is not good evidence as yet that the resistance is due to the same genetic information. Sometimes, for example, the tubers of a given species are highly resistant to the bacteri but the above-ground stems are readily rotted. The study reported here is on testing six different wild species for resistance and on several somatic hybrids, the fusion of leaf cells between different species, produced from S. brevidens in earlier studies. Potentially useful resistances were found in five of the six tested species. The somatic hybrids and some of their progeny exhibited good resistance. This indicates that the resistance from the wild species can be captured in the somatic hybrids and subsequently passed on to sexual progeny, the prerequisite for successful use of these new genes to produce highly resistant potato varieties.

Technical Abstract: Accessions of five wild Solanum species and somatic hybrids and their sexual progeny were screened for resistance to Erwinia carotovora subspecies atroseptica. Sixty seven, 50, 30, 5, 3, and 0% clones of S. sancta-rosae, S. chacoense, S. boliviense, S. spegazzinii, S. tarijense, and S. canasense were resistant or highly resistant. Two soft-rot resistant tsomatic hybrids (A937 and T 355-11, produced earlier by the fusion of protoplasts of S. brevidens and S. tuberosum) and a sexual progeny of T 355-11 were also highly resistant. Transfer of resistance from S. brevidens to T 355-11 and subsequently to the sexual progeny suggests that the resistance is inheritable. These three clones are resistant to both stem and tuber soft rot. Potato cultivars showed a differential and continuum response to the pathogen. Banana, the most resistant cultivar possessed a lower level of resistance than that of resistant clones.