Assessment of pepper genetic resources for Verticillium wilt resistance

Study was carried out for determining the reaction of 83 peppers varieties, breeding lines, and local forms /landraces/ to fungal pathogen Verticillium dahliae Kleb. as they are the part of the Balkan Capsicum core collection which was deeply phenotyped in the recent years. The development of the disease was reported twice and high degree of resistance was reported for 41 accessions. The highest percentage of highly resistant group of genotypes was 72%, followed by resistant group with 23%. The infestation in the groups of medium sensitive, sensitive and highly sensitive was respectively 1%, 3%, and 1%. The highly sensitive (0 - 19%), sensitive (20 - 39%) and medium sensitive (40 - 59%) are consisted by the var. blocky, var. ratundum and var. kapia accessions. The group of resistant (60 - 79%) was dominated by var. ratundum and var. blocky. Materials from var. kapia prevail of highly resistant (80 - 100%). The group of pungent peppers accessions was more resistant to Verticillium infestation. On the base of current and previous results may concluded that four accessions were identified as resistant to TMV and non-infested by Verticillium while two ones possessed low infestation by green aphids, trips and cotton bollworm and non-attacked by Verticillium. Other seven genotypes combined lack of infestation by Verticillium wilt with high levels of three and more agronomic and biochemical traits.