Investigating the impact of fungicides and mungbean genotypes on the management of pod rot disease caused by Fusarium equiseti and Fusarium chlamydosporum

Harwinder Singh Buttar; Amarjit Singh; Asmita Sirari; Anupam; Komalpreet Kaur; Abhishek Kumar; Milan Kumar Lal; Rahul Kumar Tiwari; Ravinder Kumar

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1164245

Investigating the impact of fungicides and mungbean genotypes on the management of pod rot disease caused by Fusarium equiseti and Fusarium chlamydosporum

Front Plant Sci. 2023 May 10:14:1164245. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1164245. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Harwinder Singh Buttar¹, Amarjit Singh¹, Asmita Sirari², Anupam¹, Komalpreet Kaur³, Abhishek Kumar⁴, Milan Kumar Lal⁵, Rahul Kumar Tiwari⁵, Ravinder Kumar⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Plant Pathology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India.
² Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India.
³ Department of Chemistry, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India.
⁴ Department of Plant Pathology, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India.
⁵ Department of Plant Protection; Department of Crop Physiology, Biochemistry & Postharvest Technology, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Abstract

Introduction: Mungbean is a vital pulse crop in India that can thrive in dry-land conditions and is grown in three seasons, with the added benefit of being used as green manure due to its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. Recently, pod rot disease has emerged as a serious threat to mungbean cultivation in India.

Methods: In this study, morpho-molecular identification of associated pathogens and the bio-efficacy of systemic and non-systemic fungicides as well as genotype screening was performed during the years 2019 and 2020. The pathogens associated with this disease were confirmed on the basis of morphological and molecular characterization. For the molecular characterization, the translation elongation factor 1-alpha (tef-1) gene sequences were amplified by using primers (EF1 and EF2).

Results: Under in vitro conditions, trifloxystrobin + tebuconazole 75% WG was found to be the most effective against Fusarium equiseti (ED₅₀ 2.39 μg ml^-1) and Fusarium chlamydosporum (ED₅₀ 4.23 μg ml^-1) causal agents of pod rot of mungbean. Under field conditions, three applications of trifloxystrobin + tebuconazole 75% WG at 0.07% as a foliar application at fortnightly intervals starting from the last week of July proved to be the most effective against pod rot disease on mungbean cultivars, i.e., ML 2056 and SML 668. To identify the potential resistance sources, 75 interspecific derivative and mutant lines of mungbean were screened for disease reaction to pod rot under natural epiphytotic conditions for the years 2019 and 2020. Genotypic differences were observed for resistance to pod rot disease. The study revealed that among the tested genotypes, ML 2524 exhibited resistance to pod rot disease, with a disease incidence of 15.62% and disease severity of 7.69%. In addition, 41 other genotypes were found to be moderately resistant (MR) to the disease.

Conclusion: Altogether, the identified management options will offer an immediate solution to manage this disease under recent outbreak conditions and pave a path for futuristic disease management using identified resistant sources in breeding programs.

Keywords: propiconazole; resistance; screening; tabuconazole; trifloxystrobin.