Evaluation and Identification of Tolerance to Sclerotinia Sclerotiorum in Soybean Cultivars

[Objective] To explore the tolerance or partial resistance to Sclerotinia Sclerotiorum in soybean germplasms in appropriate methods and determine the basis of breeding for disease resistance. [Methods]Two methods were used,including soluble pigment in stem and petiole inoculation for resistance/tolerance identification were used to evaluate 130 soybean cultivars or lines. [Results]The correlation coefficient of results from two methods was 0. 69. A total of 6 accessions were found to be tolerance and 16 were showed medium tolerance to Sclerotinia Sclerotiorum through measuring soluble pigment in stem after treated with oxalic acid. A total of 13 resistant accessions were identified to be resistant to Sclerotinia Sclerotiorum by petiole inoculation method,including all the 6 tolerant and partial medium tolerant accessions that were screened by the method of soluble pigment in stem. [Conclusion] The soluble pigment in stem method was stricter than petiole inoculation method in resistance identification and can be used for identification of tolerant germplasms to Sclerotinia Sclerotiorum from plenty of soybean accessions.