089 Inheritance of Powdery Mildew Resistance in Sweet Cherry (Prunus avium L.)

Abstract

Most sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) cultivars grown commercially in the Pacific Northwest U.S. are susceptible to powdery mildew caused by the fungus Podosphaera clandestina (Wall.:Fr.) Lev. The disease is prevalent in the irrigated arid region east of the Cascade Mountains in Washington State. Little is known about genetic resistance to powdery mildew in sweet cherry, although a selection (`PMR-1') was identified at the Washington State Unive. Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center that exhibits apparent foliar immunity to the disease. The objective of this research was to characterize the inheritance of powdery mildew resistance from `PMR-1'. Reciprocal crosses between `PMR-1' and three high-quality, widely-grown susceptible cultivars (`Bing', `Rainier', and ëVaní) were made to generate segregating progenies for determining the mode of inheritance of `PMR-1' resistance. Progenies were screened for susceptibility to powdery mildew colonization using a laboratory leaf disk assay. Assay results were verified by natural spread of powdery mildew among the progeny seedlings in a greenhouse and later by placement among infected trees in a cherry orchard. Progenies from these crosses were not significantly different (P > 0.05) when tested for a 1:1 resistant to susceptible segregation ratio, indicating that `PMR-1' resistance is conferred by a single gene, which we propose to designate as PMR-1.