© Benaki Phytopathological Institute
Hellenic Plant Protection Journal
10:
70-79, 2017
DOI 10.1515/hppj-2017-0008
1
Department of Agricultural Technology, Technologi-
cal Educational Institute (TEI) of Peloponnese, GR-241
00 Antikalamos, Kalamata, Greece.
2
COMPO HELLAS S.A. Egialias 54, GR-151 25 Marousi
Attica, Greece.
* Corresponding author:
Reaction of the native Greek tomato varieties ‘Chondrokatsari
Messinias’ and ‘Katsari Santorinis’ to
Fusarium oxysporum
f. sp.
lycopersici
and
Rhizoctonia solani
infection
A.I. Darras
1
*, A. Kotsiras
1
, C. Delis
1
, K. Nifakos
1
, E. Pavlakos
2
and V. Demopoulos
1
Summary
Plants have to cope with a number of biotic stresses among which, infectious diseases.
The present study was conducted to investigate the reaction of two native Greek tomato vars, ‘Chon-
drokatsari Messinias’ and ‘Katsari Santorinis’, to infection by
Fusarium oxysporum
f. sp.
lycopersici
and
Rhizoctonia solani
. Disease symptoms, disease incidence and severity were recorded and the effects of
infection on the number of flowers, the biomass production (fresh and dry weight), CO
2
assimilation,
stomatal conductance and transpiration were also evaluated. Both tomato varieties were susceptible
to
F. oxysporum
f. sp.
lycopersici
and
R. solani
infection. However, ‘Chondrokatsari Messinias’ was found
to be less susceptible to
F. oxysporum
f. sp.
lycopersici
compared to ‘Katsari Santorinis’. Both pathogens
negatively affected biomass production of var. ‘Chondrokatsari Messinias’ but not that of ‘Katsari San-
torinis’. The number of flowers produced by ‘Chondrokatsari Messinias’ was negatively affected by
R.
solani
but not by
F. oxysporum
f. sp.
lycopersici.
Infection of both varieties by
R. solani
also caused re-
duction in the CO
2
assimilation, stomatal conductance and transpiration.
Additional Keywords:
dry weight, Fusarium wilt, native tomato varieties, photosynthesis, stem canker, tran-
spiration
ly studied (Terzopoulos and Bebeli, 2008;
Mazzucato
et al.,
2010; Cebolla-Cornejo
et
al.,
2013; Corrado
et al.,
2014). For example,
seven out of 33 native Greek tomato variet-
ies comprise 27 different morphotypes (Ter-
zopoulos and Bebeli, 2008). However, most
of them have not yet been genetically clas-
sified or morphologically described.
Plants have to cope with a number of bi-
otic and abiotic stresses during their growth
and development (Kai
et al.,
2007). Fusari-
um wilt diseases, caused by the pathogen-
ic soil-inhabiting fungus
Fusarium oxyspo-
rum
Schlectend.:Fr., can cause severe losses
in a wide range of cultivated and non-culti-
vated plants (Larkin
et al.,
1998). On tomato,
two forms of the pathogen,
F. oxysporum
f.
sp.
lycopersici
W.C. Snyder & H.N. Hans. and
F.
oxysporum
f. sp.
radicis-lycopersici
W.R. Jarvis
& Shoemaker, cause two symptomatologi-
cally distinct diseases, i.e. vascular wilt and
crown and root rot, respectively.
F. oxyspo-
rum
f. sp.
lycopersici
invades the vascular sys-
tem of the plant through natural openings
or damaged tissue of the roots (Bishop and
Cooper, 1983; Agrios, 1997; Di Pietro
et al.,
Introduction
Native plant varieties have been extensive-
ly examined throughout the modern hu-
man history (Teshome
et al.,
1997; Zeven,
1998). Such plant material is usually select-
ed and maintained by traditional farmers as
part of their social, economic, cultural and
ecological history. Louette
et al.
(1997) de-
scribed a native variety as a farmer’s variety
which has not been improved by any formal
breeding programme. Native varieties con-
tain much more genetic diversity than mod-
ern cultivars or hybrids (Zeven, 1998; Terzo-
poulos and Bebeli, 2008; Terzopoulos and
Bebeli, 2010). Therefore, they are among the
most important sources of genetic variation
for breeders. So far, a large number of native
varieties grown in the Mediterranean region
have been morphologically and genetical-
