Inheritance of resistance to race 0 of Phytophthora parasitica var. nicotianae from the flue-cured tobacco cultivar coker 371-gold

Black shank, caused by Phytophthora parasitica var. nicotianae, is a widespread and severe disease of tobacco throughout the southeastern United States. Partial resistance derived from the cigar tobacco cultivar Florida 301 has been the primary means of reducing losses to the disease for many years. The recently released tobacco cultivar, Coker 371-Gold (C 371-G), was found to provide an additional source of resistance to P. parasitica var. nicotianae. Although the resistance in C 371-G is being used widely by breeders, the origin and inheritance of this resistance mechanism was unknown. Two populations of doubled haploid lines derived from C 371-G were used to determine that C 371-G possesses a single, dominant gene designated Ph, which confers a very high level of resistance to race 0 of P. parasitica var. nicotianae. A greenhouse inoculation procedure was developed that provided an efficient means of screening for the presence of this resistance gene prior to selection in the field, and confirmed that Ph provides complete resistance to race 0 but no resistance to race 1 of P. parasitica var. nicotianae. Because Florida 301 resistance is effective against both races of the pathogen that occur in the major tobacco growing areas of the United States, combination of these two sources of resistance should provide enhanced protection of new tobacco cultivars to P. parasitica var. nicotianae.