Field screening in Australia of lentil germplasm for resistance to botrytis grey mould

Abstract

Lentil is a relatively new crop in Australia, having undergone a rapid expansion in planting area since new cultivars were released in 1994. However, botrytis grey mould, caused by the pathogens Botrytis cinerea and B. fabae, is a serious threat to lentil production and has caused extensive crop losses in susceptible commercial lentil crops grown throughout Victoria and South Australia. At present, most commercial cultivars of lentil grown in Australia have limited resistance to botrytis grey mould. In naturally infected disease screening trials at Horsham, Victoria, in 1999 and 2000, 36 lentil lines were evaluated for their resistance to botrytis grey mould under field conditions. Large differences in resistance to botrytis grey mould were found between genotypes. The most resistant cultivars evaluated were the Canadian lines Indianhead and Matador. Indianhead had significantly higher levels of resistance to botrytis grey mould than the current susceptible Australian cultivars Aldinga, Cobber and Northfield but was not significantly better than the Australian cultivars Digger and Nugget. Results of these trials suggest that it will be possible to develop new lentil cultivars that are both resistant to botrytis grey mould and are adapted to Australian growing conditions.