What is it about?

We compared the symptoms induced by the Cercospora beticola Sacc. infection of leaves of Beta procumbens C. Sm., Beta webbiana Moq., and Beta vulgaris L. The fleck reaction observed in B. webbiana could be interpreted as hypersensitivity based on symptomatological, light microscopical, fluorescent microscopical and electron microscopical data. The B. procumbens clone was found to show resistance characteristics similar to those of B. webbiana and B. vulgaris, as it reacted both by flecks (B. webbiana) and leaf spots (B. vulgaris) to a C. beticolas infection.

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Why is it important?

Cercosporiose (C. beticola) is a fungal disease that limits the extention of sugar beet cultivation to the south of Europe. For instance, the incidence of cercosporiose is significant in the north of Italy. Any transfer of C. beticola resistance to B. vulgaris would be a significant improvement for the local economy.

Perspectives

Interspecific hybridization is possible with species of the Patellares section. However, the hybrids obtained between B. vulgaris and B. procumbens were found susceptible to C. beticola (data not shown). Actually, interspecific hybridization may involve tremendous genome recombination and the fact that the resistance was not transferred to the progeny is not meaningful. Actually, the difference between B. webbiana and B. vulgaris does not seems to be due to a difference of biochemical resistance, but rather to a difference in the speed of fungal detection by the host. In B. webbiana, the detection occurs within 12h when it takes one week in B. vulgaris. Thus, the biochemical mechanism of elicitor detection in B. webbiana should be identified in order to better understand how the disease proceed in susceptible hosts.

Nicolas Carels
Oswaldo Cruz Foundation

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This page is a summary of: Symptomatological and Morphological Study of the Resistance of Wild Beet Species of the Patellares Section to Cercospora beticola Sacc., Journal of Phytopathology, December 1990, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0434.1990.tb01182.x.
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