Inheritance of Resistance to Early Blight Disease in Tetraploid × Diploid Crosses of Potatoes

Abstract

Heritability of resistance to early blight disease in potatoes (Solarium tuberosum L.) incited by Alternaria solani (En. & Martin) Ser. was estimated in tetraploid × diploid crosses. Susceptible tetraploid cultivars and breeding lines were the female parents. Diploids that produced a high proportion of first-division restitution (FDR) gametes and possessed different levels of early blight resistance were the male parents. Tubers from seedlings that resulted from the tetraploid × diploid crosses were planted in a field and artificially inoculated with spores of Alternaria solani. Resistance was measured as the slope (r) of the regression of the logit of the percent defoliation of each plant vs. time. Higher r values indicated lower resistance. Mean r values ranged from 0.123 to 0.157 for the tetraploid parents, and from 0.054 to 0.116 for the diploid parents. Mean r values for the tetraploid × diploid crosses were intermediate, ranging from 0.077 to 0.143. Narrow-sense heritability (h2) was 0.815. The partial correlation coefficient between r and mean maturity values was – 0.2086.