Evaluation of Turkey quince genebank for resistance breeding to fire blight disease

Turkey, which is one of the major quince producer countries in the world, has an important role in the export of quince. Studies on protection of quince genetic resources are being conducted in Institutes, located in Izmir, Isparta and Erzincan locations, within the scope of General Directorate of Agricultural Researches and Politics (GDAR). Aegean Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) is the first responsible institute for the conservation of quince genetic resources and 61 genotypes are protected in the field gene bank at Menemen/Izmir location in Turkey. Fire blight is the leading cause of disease that restricting production and causing significant economic losses. Quince is described as one of the most susceptible hosts to the disease, the extensive breeding studies; the world was launched for the first time with the project of "Fire Blight Resistant Quince Breeding" funded by GDAR in 2016 under the leadership of AARI. In this context, genetic resources and cultivars (total 56) are tested with a mixture of 3 virulent strains in 3 different periods for the evaluation of disease tolerance. In addition, selection breeding studies carried out Manisa, Sakarya, Bursa, Izmir and Denizli locations for determining the tolerant genotypes under natural epidemic conditions in two consecutive years. As a result of the artificial inoculations, 50 genotypes took place in medium susceptible group, whereas susceptible group included 6 genotypes. Under natural infection conditions 15 genotypes were selected as tolerant to the disease with the range of 0-12% disease index. The possibility of using as a cultivar or genitor in the breeding studies and the importance of Turkey quince genetic resources in terms of tolerance to disease were determined. © 2020 International Society for Horticultural Science. All rights reserved.This project was supported “TAGEM/BBAD/ ? ?/A ??/P”?. ?/ ?