Protocol for potatoes genotypes differentiation by artificial inoculation of <i>Alternaria solani</i> Sor. mycelial suspensions in bedseeds and field

Abstract

Early blight resistance evaluation in potatoes is commonly done under natural infection conditions, nevertheless there exist some disadvantages such as time consuming procedure, intensive labors for plantation maintenance, interference on evaluation due to pathogens and pest, and the influence of environmental conditions during evaluation period. This work was focused to establish a protocol for artificial inoculation of Alternaria solani mycelial suspensions in bedseeds and field condition to differentiate genotypes obtained in Potatoes breeding program. The protocol proposed was easy, reproducible and appropriate for artificial inoculation of Alternaria solani mycelial suspension in bedseeds and field condition. it also enables the evaluation of promising genotypes obtained from IBP Potatoes breeding program by induced mutagenesis and in vitro selection using A. solani cultures filtrated. This protocol can be used not only in the evaluation of potatoes genotypes response to pathogen infection, but also in the pathogenic and virulence characterization of A. solani and can be used as a tool in the study of potato-A. solani interaction. Key words: breeding, screening, Solanum tuberosum, Solanum chacoense