Screening Of Popular Indian Chili Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) Genotypes Against the Chili leaf curl virus Disease

S. Vijeth, I. Sreelathakumary, C. Aiswarya and Prashant Kaushik

Background and Objective: Chilli pepper is an important spice crop and viral diseases hamper the successful of chilli peppers. The present investigation entitled was carried out to identify the sources for Chilli leaf curl virus (ChiLCV) resistance. Screening of genotypes against the ChiLCV is crucial to select the appropriate genotypes to get the successful crop production under the disease pressure. Materials and Methods: A collection of 70 popular chilli genotypes across India were evaluated under the open field conditions and using artificial inoculum for the ChiLCV disease. Thereafter, the virus presence and absence was also determined by using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) using universal primers (AV494/AC1048). Results: It determined that 23 genotypes were moderately susceptible, 12 each were susceptible and moderately resistant, 10 were symptomless, 6 were resistant, 5 were highly resistant and 2 were highly susceptible. Further, the 10 symptomless and 5 highly resistant genotypes identified under open field conditions were subjected to artificial screening by using whitefly mediated and graft inoculations. Thereafter, the 6 resistant genotypes identified with artificial inoculation by showed the presence of the virus when confirmed with PCR. However, in the whitefly mediated inoculation, four genotypes viz., Sel-3 (T₁), Sel-4 (T₂), Sel-6 (T₃) and CHIVAR-1 (T₄) did not show any amplification for the presence of the virus. Conclusion: Overall, this study provides useful information regarding the behaviour of popular chilli cultivars/genotypes against the ChiLCV disease.

View Fulltext Back