Screening of 15 Chickpea Germplasm Accessions for Resistance to Ascochyta rabiei in North West of Algeria

Abstract

Ascochyta blight is an economically important disease of chickpea caused by the fungus Ascochyta rabiei. The fungus shows considerable variation for pathogenicity in nature. Fifteen chickpea germplasm accessions provided by ICARDA (Aleppo, Syria), their origin from different countries (Table 1), were screened for resistance to Ascochyta blight disease caused by Ascochyta rabiei, by artificially inoculating the germplasm under glasshouse at temperature ranged from 20±2°C and humidity was maintained above 80% by sprinkling fresh water. Highly significant effect (P<0.01) was observed on chickpea germplasm reaction to three pathotypes of Ascochyta rabiei (Mos02 ‘pathotype III: highly aggressive’, At02 ‘pathotype II: moderate aggressive’ and Sba02 ‘pathotype I: least aggressive’). We found 5 chickpea germplasm exhibited highly resistant response (ILC72, ILC182, ILC187, ILC200 and ILC202), 2 are susceptible (ILC1929 and Flip1025) and other 8 chickpea germplasm (ILC484, ILC2506, ILC3856, ILC4421, ILC5902, ILC5921, ILC6043 and ILC6090), displayed tolerant reaction.