Radish germplasm with fusarium wilt-resistance as material for breeding disease-resistant varieties

Radish, Raphanus sativus L, is used as food and also as medicine worldwide. The radish sprout exhibited the higher antioxidant activity than L-ascorbic acid1. Fusarium wilt of radish is a problem in continuous cropping in green houses2. Radish germplasm of 98 accessions collected from 15 countries was screened for resistance to fusarium wilt. Roots of 2-week-old seedlings of each accession were inoculated with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. raphani isolate KACC 48265. The percentages of resistant seedlings which showed no disease symptoms or had discolored root and those of susceptible seedlings which severely wilted or died were investigated. Fusarium wilt-resistance for each accession ranged from 21% to 95% and 20 accessions showed the higher values than 80%. Susceptibility for each accession ranged from 0 to 79% and 23 accessions showed the lower values than 10%. The accession 'Zimska Crna' (IT32725) introduced from Macedonia showed 92% resistance and zero susceptibility. Fusarium wilt-resistant radish accessions selected through mass screening of germplasm would provide new materials for breeding disease-resistant varieties.

This study was carried out from the support of “Research Program for Agricultural Science & Technology Development (Project No. PJ01192201)”, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

[1] Yoshiaki T, Yoshihito K, Tadashi F, Masatake N. J. Agricult Food Chem 2003; 51: 8061 – 8066

[2] YS Lee, MW Lee. Biological control of plant diseases. Haworth Press Inc; 2007: 305