Assessment of Tolerance to Fusarium Wilt of some Traditional Accessions of Oil Palm (Alaeis guineensis Jacq.) Collected in Man, West of Cote d'Ivoire

Abstract

The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) genetic improvement is based on a recurrent reciprocal selection scheme, involving two groups of populations whose production components are complementary. Group A is essentially coming from Asia, while group B includes African oil palm populations. In order to increase genetic variability and to enrich the agronomic qualities of this group B, a survey was carried out in Western Côte d'Ivoire. Twelve traditional genotypes were collected in the Man area. They are known to produce a rather fluid palm oil but their behavior against Fusarium wilt was unknown. Therefore, these traditional populations were subjected to the Fusarium wilt tolerance test. One hundred and sixty (160) two-months-old seedlings of the traditional accessions were distributed in 8 completely randomized blocks and inoculated by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. elaeidis. The appearance of external symptoms on inoculated plantlets was observed over the duration of 5 months, and internal symptoms remarked after plantlets dissection. Index of the Fusarium wilt susceptibility of each progeny was determined. A third of traditional genotypes tested (Dompleu Kp 03, Gbangbegouiné Doua 01, Gbangbegouiné Kla 01 and Gbatonguin Yod 02) proved to be highly tolerant to the wilt disease. Four traditional accessions (Bogouiné Sad 02, Dompleu Kp 01, Dimgouin Zoh 02 and Blolé Dio 05) showed low tolerance, while the last four traditional genotypes (Blolé Oul 03, Koutongouiné Iba 02, Blolé Dio 02 and Dompleu Dou 03) were sensitive to the wilt disease.