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- Author or Editor: Karunakaran Maruthachalam x
- HortScience x
Verticillium wilt of lettuce caused by Verticillium dahliae can cause severe economic damage to lettuce producers. The pathogen exists as two races (Races 1 and 2) in lettuce, and complete resistance to Race 1 is known. Resistance to Race 2 isolates has not been reported, and production of Race 1-resistant cultivars will likely increase the frequency of Race 2 strains. The objective of this research was to select lettuce accessions for resistance to Race 2 isolates of V. dahliae. Two independent populations totaling 314 randomly sampled PIs were evaluated for Verticillium wilt disease incidence (DI) caused by V. dahliae isolate VdLs17 in one unreplicated and two replicated greenhouse experiments. Selection for PIs with reduced DI was conducted between each experiment and plant stems were plated on semiselective media to identify colonized plants that remained non-symptomatic. No accession with complete resistance was identified, although accessions with partial resistance were selected. Genetic variation for the frequency of V. dahliae-colonized plants that remain symptomless was detected. Four PIs (169511, 171674, 204707, and 226641) were selected for further testing in three replicated greenhouse experiments and demonstrated significantly lower disease incidence than the susceptible control cultivars. The results indicate that lettuce has genetic variation for partial resistance to a Race 2 isolate of V. dahliae. The resistant PIs selected in this research are morphologically diverse, and no dependence between rate of bolting and resistance was found. PIs with partial resistance may be useful for breeding lettuce cultivars with resistance to Race 2 isolates of V. dahliae.