Identification of New Resistance Against Turcicum Leaf Blight and Maydis Leaf Blight in Maize (Zea mays L.)

Abstract

Turcicum leaf blight (TLB) and Maydis leaf blight (MLB) are amongst the important diseases of maize grown in the North-Western Himalayas. The experimental material was evaluated at two environments (natural E₁ & inoculated E₁) representing different agroclimatic and ecological conditions of North-Western Himalayas (SAREC, Kangra E₁ and HAREC, Bajaura E₁) to identify new resistance sources and to establish durability of known resistance sources of 8 parental genotypes, their 28 crosses and four checks viz., Palam Sankar Makka-2, Vivek Hybrid-45, Bio-9544 and DKC 7074 and were evaluated in RBD during Kharif, 2019 under natural conditions in E , whereas, under both natural as well as artificial epiphytotic conditions in E₁. The present study indicated the identification of 3 parental lines viz., P₃, P₆, P₄ cross combinations viz., P₃ × P₄, P₃ × P₅, P₃ × P₆, P₇ × P₈ and checks viz., Palam Sankar Makka-2, Vivek Hybrid-45 and DKC 7074 exhibiting resistant reaction against TLB in both environments under natural conditions and under artificial condition in E₁, whereas, against MLB under both natural as well as artificial epiphytotic condition in E₁. The new sources of resistance in the present study will be helpful for their deployment in the breeding programmes. The identified lines against TLB and MLB would serve as valuable sources of resistance and can be utilized in resistance breeding programmes. The cross combinations can be further evaluated for yield and other characters and can be released as promising hybrid varieties resistant to TLB and MLB.