Genetic dissection of Lactuca saligna nonhost resistance to downy mildew at various lettuce developmental stages

Abstract

This study used the pathosystem of lettuce (Lactuca spp.) and downy mildew (Bremia lactucae) as a model to investigate the inheritance of nonhost resistance, and focused on the contribution of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) to nonhost resistance at various developmental stages in the lettuce life cycle. A set of 28 backcross inbred lines (BILs) of L. saligna CGN05271 (nonhost) introgressions in a L. sativa cv. Olof (host) background identified 16 introgressions that contributed to resistance at various plant developmental stages: seedlings, young plants, adult plants in the greenhouse and adult plants in the field. This paper provisionally considered these introgressions to be 16 QTLs. Of these 16 QTLs, seven were identified previously and nine were new. For 15 QTLs (Rbq1, Rbq2, rbq3–7 and Rbq8–15), the resistance alleles were derived from the nonhost L. saligna; the resistance allele of the other QTL (Rbq16) was from the susceptible L. sativa cv. Olof. Of the 15 QTLs in L. saligna, only two, rbq5 and rbq7, were found to be effective at every plant developmental stage; the other 13 QTLs were only effective at certain developmental stages. Experiments with seven B. lactucae races did not provide evidence that any QTL was race‐specific. The data suggest that nonhost resistance in L. saligna is the result of cumulative effects of many resistance QTLs operating at various developmental stages.