Abstract:
Orobanche Crenata is one of serious and dominant roots parasitic weed to legumes crop
production in Ethiopia. It is a major constraint to faba bean (Vicia faba L.) production and
causing total yield loss, especially at Northern parts of the country. So, there is a need to find
new sources of resistance or identification means of resistance mechanisms to facilitate faba
bean resistance breeding. Therefore, the aim of the study is to evaluate the level of resistance and
to determine the host-parasite association selectively for O. crenata using Petri dish. Thus, 5
plants of twenty faba bean varieties are tested under controlled condition using completely
Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications. The parasite seed is collected from the
infested field and equally inoculated to faba bean in petri dish. The parasite growth stages and
attachments was recorded weekly up to 70 DAI or 85 days host reached for maturity by using 1-
5 scale under laboratory. All difference among treatments was analyzed by using Tukey’s
Standardized Range (P < 1%) Test. The higher level of O. crenata infection was observed on
highly susceptible varieties, during the parasite’s growth stage 3, 4 and 5. Accordingly, only 8
varieties were reached for maturity with number of seeds ranged 21–174 from 1-4 plants per
Petri dishes; the remaining 12 varieties were completely destroyed before flowering and pod
setting stage. The varieties are then grouped into different clusters with different sizes based on
their degree of resistance or susceptibility. Three varieties ‘Ashenge, Dedia and Obse’ are
selected for their best performance. Amongst, Ashenge variety is selected as partially resistant
with highest yield provided (174 seeds from 4 plants) due to lower occurrence of parasite with it,
whereas ‘Dedia and Obse’ selected as partially tolerant varieties with 106 and 84 seeds from 2
and 3 plants per petri dish respectively. Therefore, the future breeding program should be
mainly focused on these three selected varieties to improve the problem of faba bean production
by using conventional and molecular breeding methods |
