Genotypic difference for the susceptibility of Japanese, Chinese and European pears to Venturia nashicola, the cause of scab on Asian pears

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Abstract Venturia nashicola, the cause of scab on Asian pears, is distinct from Venturia pirina, a causal fungus of European pear scab. Although scab caused by V. nashicola is one of the most serious diseases in the Japanese pear (Pyrus pyrifolia Nakai var. culta Nakai), information available regarding resistant breeding against V. nashicola is limited. In this study, 12 genotypes of Japanese pear, seven genotypes of Chinese pear (Pyrus ussuriensis Maxim.) and four genotypes of European pear (Pyrus communis L. var. sativa DC.) and/or their offspring were evaluated for susceptibility to V. nashicola with leaf and fruit inoculation tests. At 30–40 days after full bloom in their developmental stage, unfolded young leaves and fruit were inoculated with conidial suspensions of V. nashicola for each genotype, and the responses were rated at 30 days postinoculation for the inoculated leaves and at 42 days postinoculation for the inoculated fruits. No visible symptoms were found in European pear ‘Bartlett’ and ‘La France’ and their respective offspring ‘290‐36’ and ‘282‐12’, in the Japanese pear ‘Kinchaku’ and in the Chinese pears ‘Cangxili’ and ‘Hongli’; these genotypes were evaluated as highly resistant to V. nashicola. Necrotic lesions without sporulation were observed in the Chinese pears ‘Qiubaili’, ‘Manyuanxiang’, ‘Yuanbali’ and ‘Xiangyali’, which were regarded as resistant. Sporulating lesions were formed on the other genotypes, such as the major Japanese pear cultivars ‘Kosui’ and ‘Nijisseiki’, which were regarded as susceptible. The response of inoculated leaves coincided well with that of inoculated fruit for each genotype. When the severity of scab symptoms on scab‐susceptible genotypes was further rated with disease severity (DS) values, a genotypic difference was observed for overall DS values in a successive 2‐year measurement among the susceptible genotypes. Based on the DS values of leaf and fruit scabs, the Japanese pears ‘Niitaka’, ‘Shinko’, ‘Nijisseiki’, ‘Gold Nijisseiki’, ‘Osa Nijisseiki’ and ‘Shinsui’ were considered to be less susceptible to V. nashicola than the typical susceptible cultivar ‘Kosui’.