Inheritance of Resistance to Verticillium dahliae in Diploid Interspecific Potato Hybrids
Shelley Jansky, Professor, Department of Biology, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 54481; D. I. Rouse, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin-Madison 53706; and P. J. Kauth, Department of Biology, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Plant Dis. D-2004-0727-01R, 2004 (online). Accepted for publication 6 May 2004.

INTERPRETIVE SUMMARY

Verticillium wilt is a serious disease in potato and is caused primarily by the soilborne fungi Verticillium dahliae and V. albo-atrum. Currently, the most common control practice is soil fumigation, which is costly and environmentally harmful. Host plant resistance offers an effective, long-term control strategy for the management of this disease. Although commercially significant cultivars are not resistant, high levels of resistance have been identified in hybrids between cultivated and wild potato lines. In this study, we determined that resistance in these clones is simply inherited. Two genes that interact with each other appear to be responsible for resistance. Therefore, high levels of resistance should be relatively easy to transfer to the cultivated potato.

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