Promising Turkish Chickpea Germplasms Resistant to Ascochyta Blight (Ascochyta rabiei)

Ascochyta rabiei. (aka. Ascochyta blight of chickpea) is among the most devastating fungal pathogens in chickpea-growing areas. One of the main goals of the breeding programs is to improve the resistance of newly developed commercial cultivars to this pathogen. The resistance of 18 chickpea cultivars and 27 chickpea lines (developed under the chickpea breeding program in Turkey) was evaluated against Pathotype IV of Ascochyta rabiei, the most aggressive pathotype found in Turkey. All genotypes were tested under greenhouse conditions. Significant differences were found among the genotypes (α = 0.05). The response of the genotypes were grouped as resistant, moderately resistant, susceptible and highly susceptible with the percentage of 31.2%, 37.7%, 20% and 11.1%, respectively. The outputs of this study could be used for the development of new chickpea cultivars and varieties through breeding programs.