A Field Screening of a Pomegranate ( Punica granatum ) Ex-Situ Germplasm Collection for Resistance against the False Spider Mite ( Tenuipalpus punicae )

Sharavan Manbhar Haldhar (), Ramesh Kumar, Giandomenico Corrado, Mukesh Kumar Berwal, Jagan Singh Gora, Narit Thaochan, Dilip Kumar Samadia, Tajamul Hussain, Youssef Rouphael, Pradeep Kumar and Boris Basile ()
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Sharavan Manbhar Haldhar: ICAR—Central Institute for Arid Horticulture, Bikaner 334006, India
Ramesh Kumar: ICAR—Central Institute for Arid Horticulture, Bikaner 334006, India
Giandomenico Corrado: Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, 80055 Portici, Italy
Mukesh Kumar Berwal: ICAR—Central Institute for Arid Horticulture, Bikaner 334006, India
Jagan Singh Gora: ICAR—Central Institute for Arid Horticulture, Bikaner 334006, India
Narit Thaochan: Department of Pest Management, Agricultural Innovation and Management Division, Faculty of Natural Resources, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla 90110, Thailand
Dilip Kumar Samadia: ICAR—Central Institute for Arid Horticulture, Bikaner 334006, India
Tajamul Hussain: Laboratory of Plant Breeding and Climate Resilient Agriculture, Faculty of Natural Resources, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla 90110, Thailand
Youssef Rouphael: Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, 80055 Portici, Italy
Pradeep Kumar: Division of Integrated Farming System, ICAR—Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur 342003, India
Boris Basile: Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, 80055 Portici, Italy

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-15

Abstract: Mite management is a major problem in pomegranate ( Punica granatum L.) cultivation in the arid and semi-arid regions of India and other Asian countries. The aim of this work was to investigate the susceptibility to the false spider mite ( Tenuipalpus punicae ) in a germplasm collection of Indian pomegranates. A field screening of 73 accessions allowed to define different classes of susceptibility (from very low to very high) based on the percentage of infested leaves. Twenty-two accessions, representative of the empirically identified five susceptibility classes, were further tested. The field screening against the mite, extended to another two years, showed that the infestation level did not display a significant interaction with the growing season, and highly correlated between the different growing seasons. The analysis of the tree vegetative growth (height, canopy size, and stem diameter), main phytochemical classes (total phenolics, flavonoids, and tannins) and the antioxidant activity of the leaves indicated strong significant negative correlations between the infestation level and the biochemical traits. Multidimensional reduction of the measured traits revealed that the extreme classes of susceptibility to mites are mainly separated according to the accumulation of phytochemicals in leaves. This work, for the first time, allowed the identification of pomegranate germplasm with low susceptibility to T. punicae , with positive and useful implications for the establishment of new orchards, plant breeding, and the identification of allelochemicals of the leaves directly affecting mites.

Keywords: pest; host resistance; breeding; fruit crop; phytochemicals; leaves; selection; Acari (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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