Study on Cuminum cyminum L. genotypes tolerance to Fusarium wilt disease

Fusarium wilt disease is the most important disease of cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) and causes great damage to it every year. The present study was conducted to evaluate the response of 13 cumin genotypes to Fusarium wilt disease as a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design (genotype as the first factor and absence and presence of the pathogen as the second one) with three replications in the greenhouse of Research and Technology Institute of Plant Production, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman during growing season of 2020-2021. The results showed that the interaction of genotype and treatment was statistically significant on most of the traits. The highest traits correlation was observed between plant dry weight and number of umbrellas per plant (0.92) under the absence of pathogen conditions and between plant height and number of seeds per plant (0.76) under the presence of pathogen conditions. Cluster analysis (Ward method) regarding the studied traits divided the genotypes into three groups under the absence of pathogen conditions and two groups under the presence of pathogen. Principal component analysis showed that the first two components could explain 80.13% (absence of pathogen) and 84.55% (presence of pathogen) of the variations. Also, biplot analysis showed high diversity of the genotypes as well as confirming the clustering results. The genotype E7r1b1 had the highest plant mortality ratio (100%) under the presence of pathogen. Under the absence of pathogen, the genotype g8r2b2 had the highest yield (0.20 g) and number (75.66) of seeds per plant. Yield and number of seeds per plant decreased significantly under the presence of pathogen. The highest seed yield (0.14 g) under the presence of pathogen was observed in the genotype 2-14-3. Based on the studied traits, the genotypes g5r2B1 and F12r1b1 had the lowest potential compared to the others under the both conditions. In general, the genotypes reacted differently under the absence and presence of pathogen conditions. The genotypes that revealed tolerance to the disease conditions could be introduced as sources of tolerance in further breeding programs.