Aggressiveness of eight Didymella rabiei isolates from domesticated and wild chickpea native to Turkey and Israel, a case study

Abstract

Ascochyta blight, caused by Didymella rabiei, affects both domesticated chickpea and its congeneric wild relatives. The aim of this study was to compare the aggressiveness of D. rabiei isolates from wild and domesticated Cicer spp. in Turkey and Israel on wild and domesticated hosts from both countries. A total of eight isolates of D. rabiei sampled from C. pinnatifidum, C. judaicum and C. arietinum in Turkey and Israel was tested on two domesticated chickpea cultivars and two wild Cicer accessions from Turkey and Israel. Using crossinoculation experiments, we compared pathogen aggressiveness across the different pathogen and host origin combinations. Two measures of aggressiveness were used, incubation period and relative area under the disease progress curve. The eight tested isolates infected all of the host plants, but were more aggressive on their original hosts with one exception; Turkish domesticated isolates were less aggressive on their domesticated host in comparison to the aggressiveness of Israeli domesticated isolates on Turkish domesticated chickpea. C. judaicum plants were highly resistant against all of the isolates from different origins except for their own isolates. Regardless of the country of origin, the wild isolates were highly aggressive on domesticated chickpea while the domesticated isolates were less aggressive on the wild hosts compared with the wild isolates. These results suggest that the aggressiveness pattern of D. rabiei on different hosts could have been shaped by adaptation to the distinct ecological niches of wild vs. domesticated chickpea.

The Search for Wild Relatives of Cool Season Legumes

“…All of the considerations regarding lentil domestication, as specified in the first chapter-including patchy distribution with small numbers of individuals per population, small numbers of pods per plant, and hard seededness conferring low germination rate-apply likewise to chickpea. It is unclear how Neolithic humans identified a free germinating chickpea genotype, but, as argued by Ladizinsky (1987Ladizinsky ( , 1993b and Abbo et al (2011), it certainly could not have happened via the presumed "pre-domestication cultivation" exercises postulated, for example, by Harris (1989) or by Fuller (2007). Information on the genetic control of free germination is indispensible for understanding how it was acquired, but the subject still requires further investigation.…”

“…It is not an aggressive competitor, nor does it have a profuse propagation rate. Moreover, accessions from its various localities in Israel have strong seed dormancy, typical of the wild-type genotype of the Near Eastern grain legumes (Ladizinsky 1987(Ladizinsky , 1993Abbo et al 2011). The strong affinity of these forms for disturbed habitats and man-made niches is apparent from the fact that they hardly ever invade adjacent less disturbed or undisturbed habitats even where available, but confine themselves to disturbed niches (see, e.g., Abbo et al 2013b).…”

Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Didymella rabiei Affecting Chickpea in Ethiopia

“…The relative genetic distances among populations did not completely correlate with the geographical distances of their sampling locations. Genetic diversity may not indicate pathogenic aggressiveness, but it is important to test the aggressiveness of pathogens on a set of hosts with different levels of resistance [42,[56][57][58]. Intensive diversity with pathogenic virulence studies should be addressed regularly to support chickpea resistance breeding programs in Ethiopia.…”

Determination of the Best Functional Chickpea Cultivars by Topsis Technique

“…Chickpea (Cicer arientum) is one of the most important pulse crops with high carbohydrate and dietary fiber content, considerable protein content and of various minerals (Bibi et al, 2007;Özer et al, 2010;Mafakheri et al, 2011;Torutaeva et al, 2014;Çelik et al, 2016). Due to its high nitrogen utilization efficiency and high protein yield under drought conditions, chickpea is mostly grown in arid or semiarid Mediterranean environment of West Asia and North Africa and adopted in North America, western Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Central Europe (Oweis et al, 2004;Özer et al, 2010;Ozkilinc et al, 2011;Atalay and Babaoglu, 2012;Siddique et al, 2012;Neugschwandtner et al, 2015;Sadras and Dreccer, 2015). However, there are some challenges to develop new chickpea varieties due to its restricted genetic variations, many registered cultivars have been planting around the world (Mafakheri et al, 2011;Atalay and Babaoglu, 2012;Siddique et al, 2012).…”