Identification of Fusarium wilt resistant genotypes in lentil

Fusarium wilt is a serious disease of lentil crop. In the present investigation, 144 pre-breeding lines derived from crosses involving accessions of Lens curlinaris subsp. orientalis and L. curlinaris subsp. tomentosus and 117 Mediterranean landraces of lentil were screened under wilt sick plot. This is resulted in the identification of a highly resistant pre-breeding line IPLPBR-1 [IPL 406 (L. culinaris subsp. culinaris) x IG 136667 (ILWL 44; L. curlinaris subsp. tomentosus)] and a Mediterranean landraces IG 54 having a resistance level of <10%. Testing of these genotypes for over four years under similar wilt sick plots showed an average wilt incidence ranging from 8.5 % to 8.8 % in resistant genotypes while it was observed from 82.0 to 86.4 % in susceptible check genotypes. The other genotypes showed moderate resistance to high susceptibility against the Kanpur isolate of the Fusarium wilt in the present study. These resistant genotypes are useful donors for breeding Fusarium wilt resistant cultivars in lentil.