ISHS Acta Horticulturae 494: II International Symposium on Chestnut
RESISTANCE TEST FOR CHESTNUT AGAINST CRYPHONECTRIA (ENDOTHIA) PARASITICA |
| Authors: | J. Rodriguez, C. Colinas |
| Keywords: | chestnut blight, breeding, Castanea sp., disease susceptibility |
| Abstract:
Cryphonectria parasitica (Murr.) Barr is presently the most important pathogen affecting Castanea sativa and C. dentata. Control of this fungal disease is based on the introduction of hypovirulent strains of the fungus and on breeding of blight-resistant hybrid chestnut trees. Presently, the only method to measure resistance of new hybrids is by direct inoculation and waiting weeks to months for tree reaction. Searching for a method to accelerate this process, we examined the effectiveness of a test developed by Lee et al. (1992), which was originally designed to measure fungal virulence, as a tool to measure tree resistance. Results indicate that the Lee et al. method is successful in measuring chestnut tree response to C. parasitica when test samples are collected in July and inoculations are performed on woody samples from the stem. This test is easily performed and requires only 3 days for results, which makes it a valuable method for hybrid selection by plant breeders until molecular markers for tree resistance are further developed. | |
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