SCREENING FOR RESISTANCE TO FUSARIUM WILT OF SOME CULTIVATED EGGPLANTS AND WILD SOLANUM ACCESSIONS

Fusarium wilt is one of the most destructive diseases of eggplant. It is a soil borne disease and its control is very difficult. The best way to cope with this problem is to develop and use resistant cultivars. In this study a total of thirty-nine genotypes, twenty-one cultivated eggplants (four Turkish local cultivars, two Malaysian local genotypes, eight inbreed lines and seven F₁ hybrids) and eighteen wild relatives belonging to six different species (Solanum aethiopicum, Solanum integrifolium, Solanum sisymbrifolium, Solanum torvum, Solanum violaceum, Solanum incanum) were tested for their resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melongenae (FOM). Resistance tests were performed with root-dip inoculation methods using a virulent Turkish isolate. Four-week-old seedlings at the second true leaf stage were used in inoculation. All the genotypes of wild Solanum species used in the trial were found resistant to FOM. Among cultivated forms only two genotypes from Malaysia (LS 1934 and LS 2436) and one cultivar from Turkey (Topan 374) were found resistant; all other cultivars, inbreed lines and F₁ hybrids were found susceptible.