Response of some Chickpea Genotypes to Races of Ascochyta rabiei Cause of Ascochyta Blight in Greenhouse

Ascochyta blight caused by Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Lab. is an important disease of chickpea in Iran and worldwide. Information about the races of the pathogen in different areas is necessary for improvement of resistant cultivars. In the present study physiologic races of 28 isolates of A. rabiei collected from five areas of Kermanshah province of Iran during 2013 and 2014, were determined using seven chickpea standard differential cultivars. Six different races were identified. Race 1 with seven isolates(25%), race 2 with five isolates (17.8%), race 3 with seven isolates (25%), race 4 with four isolates( 14.4%), race 5 with two isolates (7.2%) and race 6 with three isolates (10.6%) were the prevatent races in Kermanshah province. Races 1, 2, 3 and 4 with 23 isolates (82.1%) were distributed all over areas of the province, while race 6, the highly virulent isolate, was detected only in a restricted area in Sararood. Response of 48 genotypes of including improved cultivars, advanced chickpea lines and landraces were evaluated against the six identified races in greenhouse. The results showed that most of the genotypes were susceptible or highly susceptible to different races. Recently released cultivars, Adel and Azad, were moderately resistant to the highly virulent race 6 and resistant to the other races. The remaining genotypes were susceptible or highly susceptible to this race. Based on the results of this study, in addition to Adel and Azad cultivars, lines Flio 51-87-3c, ILC-3274 and LMR-165 which were resistant or moderately resistant to the most prevalent races 1, 2, 3 and 4, can be also recommended as resistant sources for the region.