Inheritance of anthracnose resistance in the tropical pasture legume Stylosanthes hamata

Abstract

Eight tetraploid accessions of the tropical pasture legume Stylosanthes hamata with varying levels of response to the anthracnose pathogen (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides) were crossed in a half diallel scheme. Based on mean disease severity ratings (MDR), two parents, 55830 and 75164, were grouped as resistant (R), 55828 and 65365 were susceptible (S), and the remaining four, cvv. Verano and Amiga and 65371 and 75162 were moderately resistant (MR). Of these, the two resistant parents appear to carry different genes for resistance. The MDR of 20 of the 28 F2 populations was significantly different from their mid-parent MDR and the expression of resistance, in most cases, was recessive. Only a limited number of the F2 distributions for crosses between RxS, RxMR and MRxS parents conformed to a single gene model. The inheritance patterns observed were considered to be predominantly quantitative. Variation for general combining ability, was as large as or larger than that for specific combining ability suggesting that a large proportion of the genetic differences among the parents was additive. The finding that the resistance is inherited as a quantitative trait is consistent with results on the epidemiology of anthracnose in tetraploid S. hamata.