Genetic Control of Reaction to Common Blight Bacterium in Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) as Influenced by Plant Age and Bacterial Multiplication1

Abstract

Reaction to Xanthomonas phaseoli (E.F. Smith) Dowson, cause of common blight disease in beans, Phaseolus vulgaris L., was inherited quantitatively in the cross early flowering susceptible cv. Great Northern (GN) 1140 × late flowering tolerant line ‘GN Nebr. #1, sel. 27’. F 1 populations showed partial dominance for susceptibility at 25 days and nearly complete dominance at 43 days after inoculation. Genes controlling delayed flowering, under long photoperiod and high temp, and tolerant reaction were linked. Early, blight tolerant advanced lines were not obtained by pedigree selection. They were obtained, however, by the backcross method, using ‘GN Nebr. #1, sel. 27’ as the recurrent parent. Different photoperiod × temp regimes in growth chambers induced flowering at the same or different times in nearly-isogenic lines of the same age. Vegetative plants exhibited higher levels of tolerance and lower bacterial populations than did plants in the pod stage. The bacterial population in susceptible ‘GN 1140’ was higher than in early and late tolerant lines.