Variability in Chickpea Rot-causing Soil-borne Necrotrophs, Sclerotium rolfsii and Macrophomina phaseolina

The present work was designed to identify the cultural and pathogenic variability of the two chickpea rot-causing necrotrophic soil-borne pathogens i.e. Sclerotium rolfsiiand Macrophomina phaseolina cause significant damage to chickpea cultivation.The potentiality of the isolates for infection was recognized with artificial inoculation test using susceptible genotypes. Disease index values of S. rolfsii and M. phaseolina were 24.9–68.8% and 20.0–64.0%, respectively. Among twelve isolates of S. rolfsii, BAUSr4 and Ag2 produced the highest infection on genotype L550 (cd: 10.79). Likewise, isolate DarkMP4J followed by DarkMP1J and Jute1, among twenty–one isolates of M. phaseolina, rendered maximum infection on genotype K850 (cd: 5.15). No relationship was established among the cultural characters and pathogenicity of the isolates. Isolates differed in aggressiveness across different locations and hosts