Evaluation of Resistance in Hot Pepper Germplasm to Phytophthora Blight on Biological Assay

Phytophthora blight of pepper is the most economically important disease in the world cultivation regions. We investigated the phytophthora blight resistance of 300 accessions of Korean landrace of hot pepper germplasms collected from 83 local regions. The disease incidence rate was checked from 7 days to 28 days at an interval of 7 days after inoculation under greenhouse conditions. Among 300 accessions, the disease incidence rate of phytophthora blight of 67 accessions of pepper germplasm was more than 60.1%, while no disease was observed in 37 accessions at 7 days after inoculation. At 28 days after inoculation, five and eleven accessions of pepper germplasm were resistance and moderate resistance to P. capsici, respectively. Two hundred forty four susceptible accessions (81.3%) of pepper were scored as having more than 60.1% of disease incidence of phytophthora blight. This result suggests that five candidate pepper germplasm might be used as breeding resources for the phytophthora blight resistance breeding program. Also, further genetic studies should be carried out to verify this result, with the overall focus of providing information on important characteristics of pepper germplasm.