Resistance Marker Detection in Ten Date Palm Cultivars to the Wilt Pathogen, Fusarium oxysporum

D. A. Komeil, M. Y. Abdalla, A. F. El-Bebany and A. B. A. Basyony

Background and Objective: Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is an economically important food crop in Egypt. In addition to its edible sweet fruits, it contributes in the preservation of the arid ecosystems threatened by desertification. In the current study, an isolate of Fusarium was isolated from a wilt date palm orchard in Aswan (Upper Egypt). Materials and Methods: In the present study, wilting of some orchards of date palm in Aswan (Upper Egypt), were studied. Samples were cultured in common media (PDA) and Fusarium strain was morphologically and molecularly characterized. The pathogenicity test on date palm seedlings were carried out on ten cultivars from different regions of Middle East and North Africa by stem inoculation method. A mitochondrial molecular marker to test date palm germplasm for resistance/ susceptibility to the Bayoud disease was applied in using PCR based on the two primers oli1 and oli2. Results: Results for pathogenicity test indicated that the ten studied cultivars are susceptible to Fusarium oxysporum Aswan and they differed genetically as evidenced by analysis of molecular variance using mitochondrial resistance markers to Bayoud disease. In addition, the results indicated that all germplasms of Egyptian cultivars had susceptibility marker and there is an association occurred between geographical distances of date palm populations studied. Conclusion: Screening of date palm cultivars for resistance to Bayoud disease showed that there is a genetic variation between Egyptian cultivars and other tested cultivars.

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