ASSESSMENT OF ENDOGENOUS ORGANIC ACID LEVELS IN ASCOCHYTA BLIGHT [Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Labr.] SUSCEPTIBLE AND RESISTANT CHICKPEAS (Cicer arietinum L.)
Keywords:
Ascochyta blight, chickpea; citric acid; malic acid; oxalic acid; quinic acid; sucsinic acid.Abstract
Ascochyta blight, caused by Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Labr., is one of the most important foliar diseases of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in many countries. The present study was designed to determine whether there were different concentrations of organic acids between kabuli chickpea genotypes known as resistant and susceptible to ascochyta blight. ILC 263, (susceptible to ascochyta blight), FLIP 95-51C and FLIP 95-60C (resistant to ascochyta blight) were used to determine the levels of endogenous citric, malic, oxalic, quinic, and succinic acids. Citric and oxalic acid concentrations were lower in resistant genotypes than the susceptible genotype. However, malic acid was higher in the resistant genotypes than the susceptible one. Results suggested that high level of malic acid may be used as preselection criteria for resistance to ascochyta blight in chickpea breeding material.