Development of an Efficient Simple Mass-Screening Method for Resistant Melon to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melonis

Abstract

This study was conducted to establish a simple mass-screening method for resistant melon to Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melonis (FOM). Root-dipping inoculation method has been used to investigate resistance of melon plants to Fusarium wilt. However, the inoculation method requires a lot of labor and time because of complicate procedure. To develop a simple screening method on melon Fusarium wilt, occurrence of Fusarium wilt on susceptible and resistant cultivars of melon according to inoculation method including root-dipping, soil-drenching, tip, and scalpel methods was investigated. Scalpel and tip methods showed more clear resistant and susceptible responses in the melon cultivars than root-dipping inoculation method, but tip method represented slightly variable disease severity. In contrast, in the case of soil-drenching inoculation method, disease severity of the susceptible cultivars was very low. Thus we selected scalpel method as inoculation method of a simple screening method for melon Fusarium wilt. By using the scalpel inoculation method, resistance degrees of the cultivars according to incubation temperature after inoculation (25 and 30 o C) and inoculum concentration (1×10 6 and 1×10 7 conidia/ml) were measured. The resistance or susceptibility of the cultivars was hardly affected by all the tested conditions. To look into the effectiveness of scalpel inoculation methods, resistance of 22 commercial melon cultivars to FOM was compare with root-dipping inoculation method. When the melon cultivars were inoculated by scalpel method, resistance responses of all the tested cultivars were clearly distinguished as by root-dipping method. Taken together, we suggest that an efficient simple mass-screening method for resistant melon plant to Fusarium wilt is to sow the seeds of melon in a pot (70 ml of soil) and to grow the seedlings in a greenhouse (25±5 o C) for 7 days, to cut the root of seedlings with a scalpel and then pour a 10 ml-aliquot of the spore suspension of 1×10 6 conidia/ml on soil. The infected plants were cultivated in a growth room at 25 to 30 o C for about 3 weeks with 12-hr light a day.

Identification of main fungal disease from hydroponic melon in greenhouse

“…According to [14,20], F. oxysporum f. sp. melonis is the main pathogenic fungus that attacks melons, especially in greenhouses [20].…”