Evaluation of Major Ancestors of North American Soybean Cultivars for Resistance to Three Pythium Species that Cause Seedling Blight.

Pythium seedling blight, which can be caused by a number of Pythium spp., is a disease that affects soybean (Glycine max) in the United States and Canada. Pythium ultimum var. ultimum, one of the most common pathogenic species, is favored by cool, wet conditions in early spring and causes seed decay, root rot, and seedling damping-off. In all, 102 major ancestors of modern North American cultivars and "first progeny" cultivars developed directly from ancestral lines were evaluated for resistance to P. ultimum var. ultimum and two other species of Pythium in greenhouse assays. Several ancestors and first progeny cultivars, as well as the resistant check Archer, had varying levels of partial resistance to an Illinois isolate of P. ultimum var. ultimum. In a subsequent experiment, four of the most resistant lines (PI 84637, Maple Isle, Fiskeby III, and Fiskeby 840-7-3) and the susceptible cultivar Kanro were screened for resistance against isolates of P. irregulare and P. sylvaticum, and resistance to P. ultimum var. ultimum was confirmed. The lines that were partially resistant to P. ultimum var. ultimum in the first experiment were also partially resistant to P. irregulare and P. sylvaticum. The P. ultimum var. ultimum isolate was the most aggressive of the three isolates, followed by the P. irregulare and P. sylvaticum isolates. Modern cultivars descended from the soybean lines with partial resistance to these pathogens could be useful sources of resistance to Pythium seedling blight if they are found to have similar levels of resistance.