ABSTRACT
Brazil has the largest commercial cattle herd in the world, based on the use of pastures. Currently, the use of forage legumes has been increasing, in association with grasses or exclusive (protein banks), among which Stylosanthes capitata Swartz must be highlighted. However, their commercial use has been limited due to anthracnose, caused by the fungus Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. This study aimed to identify genotypes of S. capitata with high degree of resistance to anthracnose. The study was carried out at Embrapa Beef Cattle, from 2012 to 2014. Initially, thirty S. capitata accessions were sown in a greenhouse, keeping just one plant per pot, where they remained for seven weeks until inoculation. In a randomized block design, factorial arrangement (30 host accessions x 4 pathogen isolates), and 10 replicates, two experiments were conducted at different times. The single spore isolates of C. gloeosporioides (GC2, GC20, GC672 and GC722) were selected based on their representativeness of the most frequent physiological races in Brazil. These isolates were inoculated with suspensions of 106 conidia/mL in host accessions. Based on the degree of resistance to the pathogen, the accessions were classified from immune to highly susceptible. In the field, in a randomized block experiment, with four replicates, the disease severity was evaluated on 44 accessions of the legume. Among the inoculated genotypes in both trials, the accessions GC1081, GC1087, GC1090, GC1094, GC 1173 and GC2298 behaved as resistant to all isolates of the studied pathogen. GC2 and GC672 were the most aggressive isolates, regardless of the host accession. Results of the field experiment evidenced the genetic variability of the studied germplasm for resistance to this disease. However, it was not possible to select accessions resistant to the pathogen. Under such conditions, a new physiological variation of the pathogen can occur, more aggressive than the artificially inoculated ones. Average temperature and relative humidity of 22-26ºC and 77%, respectively, provided appropriate conditions for the disease evolution in the field.
Keywords
Colletotrichum gloeosporioides; forage legumes; resistance
