African Journal of Agronomy ISSN: 2375-1185 Vol. 3 (1), pp. 228-234, March, 2015. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

An assessment of wild Cicer species accessions for resistance to three pathotypes of Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Labr. in Algeria

Houari S.O, Bouteflika D.A and Lamamra A.A

Laboratory of Plant Protection, Department of Agronomy, University Abdelhamid Ibn Badis of Mostaganem, Mostaganem, Algeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: houari.scholars@gmail.com

Abstract

Twenty-five (25) genotypes of five wild Cicer species (Cicer judaicum, Cicer bijugum, Cicer cuneatum, Cicer echinospermum and Cicer reticulatum) were screened for resistance to ascochyta blight disease caused by Ascochyta rabiei, by artificially inoculating the germplasm under glasshouse. Highly significant effect (P<0.01) was observed on their reaction to three pathotypes of A. rabiei (Mos02 ‘pathotype III: highly aggressive’, At02 ‘pathotype II: moderate aggressive’, and Sba02 ‘pathotype I: least aggressive’), there is a difference in genotypes reaction to A. rabiei isolates but very important resistance was observed (>50% of accessions collection). All five C. judaicum accessions are resistant to A. rabiei isolates, two resistant accessions in the wild species C. echinospermum (ILWC0 and ILWC246) and three accessions in C. reticulatum (ILWC81, ILWC104 and ILWC247), C. cuneatum (ILWC37, ILWC40 and ILWC232) and C. bijugum (ILWC195, ILWC285 and ILWC286).

Key words: Ascochyta rabiei, Cicer arietinum, Cicer sp., aggressiveness, resistance.