GENETICS AND CYTOLOGY OF AGE-RELATED RESISTANCE IN NORTH-AMERICAN CULTIVARS OF COWPEA (VIGNA-UNGUICULATA) TO THE COWPEA RUST FUNGUS (UROMYCES-VIGNAE)

Increasing leaf age was accompanied by increases in resistance in three incompatible cowpea cultivars inoculated with race 1 of Uromyces vignae and in three of four cultivars that had previously been considered susceptible to race N2. Selected crosses between cultivars suggested that resistance to race 1 was controlled by the same genes in young and old leaves, and they indicated that age-related resistance to race N2 was primarily controlled by a single, and different, gene in each cultivar. All examples of resistance were expressed cytologically as a range of infection site types in a single leaf, the frequency distribution of which was affected by the type of resistance gene, gene heterozygosity, and leaf age. These frequency distributions shifted with increasing leaf age towards infection sites with less fungal growth and more rapid plant cell necrosis, often abolishing the cytological differences between cultivars and genotypes seen in younger plants. The data suggest that each rust resistance gene in cowpea can generate a range of infection site types, and that fungal growth and plant responses at each infection site are governed by a combination of the number and type of resistance genes in the plant, the race of the fungus, and age-affected features of individual plant cells.