Identification of Sources of Resistance in Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Against Late Leaf Spot

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) production in India is mainly limited by the late leaf spot (LLS) disease. The present research was performed to identify the sources of resistance to late leaf spot. One hundred fourteen groundnut genotypes including four wild species were screened under artificial epiphytotic conditions in field at AICRP on Groundnut, MPKV, Rahuri during 2013–14 and 2014–15. The observations of disease intensity and apperent rate of infection reveled that, 12 genotypes showed resistant and 51 genotypes showed the moderately resistant reaction to LLS disease. The 41 entries were showed the susceptible and 10 genotypes showed the highly susceptible reaction to the LLS disease. All the susceptible cultivars belong to A. hypogaea sub. sp. fastigiata var. fastigiata to as Spanish bunch. Among these resistant genotypes of groundnut ten genotypes were selected including two wild species viz., RHRG 6083, GPBD 4, KDG 128, ICG 11426, ICG 12672, ICG 13919, ICG 14475, ICGV 94118, ICGV 13160 (A. batizocoi) and ICGV 13165 (A. cardenasi) for intensive screening under glasshouse conditions, also confirmed resistance. The resistant lines will be useful to develop introgression lines using markerassisted backcrossing approach to improve foliar fungal disease resistance in popular groundnut varieties.