Determination of the severity of soft rot and blackleg caused by Pectobacterium brasiliense in some potato genotypes from Turkey

Abstract

Pectobacterium species are one of the main bacterial agents of soft rot and blackleg diseases that cause economic damage to potato crops. Farmers around the world suffer losses from both diseases and use different strategies to control. In this study, local potato genotypes were evaluated for disease severity of soft rot and blackleg. We discovered putative genotypes with low disease severity for both diseases. In the tuber experiment, the lowest soft rot was determined for genotype 18 with 34% disease severity. The highest soft rot was found in the cultivars Natasha, Laperla and Sultanecem. In the plant experiment, the lowest lesion length was measured in the cultivars Sultannur, Orchestra and Marabel. The 33% disease severity for these cultivars was also calculated for genotypes 18 and 32. With regard to soft rot and blackleg of potato, this is the first study to determine disease severity of Turkish local potato genotypes.

Keywords:

• Potato
• genotypes
• disease severity
• Pectobacterium brasiliense
• soft rot
• blackleg

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.

Authors’ contributions

Murat Öztürk performed laboratory works, each analysis, wrote and revised the manuscript. Hasan Murat Aksoy supervised the laboratory works related with PhD thesis of Murat Öztürk. Şahane Funda Arslanoğlu supplied the tubers of genotypes and cultivars. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the project management office of Ondokuz Mayis University under grant number Omu.Pyo.Zrt.1901.15.011. This research is a part of the Doctoral dissertation of Murat Öztürk which was carried out at Ondokuz Mayis University, Turkey.