Development of rapid, efficient and cost effective screening technique for testing arecanut against Phytophthora meadii incitant of fruit rot disease

To accelerate identification of disease resistant arecanut germplasm or hybrids against <i>Phytophthora</i>, it is very much imperative to develop bioassays which could differentiate resistant and susceptible cultivars efficiently. Here, a cost effective and rapid technique, called the "Detached Leaf Assay", was developed to identify resistant germplasm at the seedling stage itself. Zoospore production in highly virulent <i>Phytophthora meadii</i> (P19) was standardized by incubating under a 12 hours light and dark regime. Zoospore suspension was adjusted to 10⁵ spores ml^-1 in Petri plates. Subsequently, surface sterilized arecanut leaves were floated in zoospore suspension and incubated at temperature of 24±1 °C. Disease symptoms, including water-soaked lesions, were recorded three days after inoculation. Infection lesion increased from 1 to 7.3 cm². The pathogen was re-isolated and confirmed with the original culture. The assay was successfully validated to screen arecanut accessions, wild types and hybrids against <i>P. meadii</i>. This technique is the first to be developed, and it is simple, cost-effective, and faster. It also provides consistent infection and could be effectively utilized to screen arecanut germplasm or hybrids against <i>P. meadii</i> in the seedling stage itself.•Developed a cost effective, efficient and rapid screening technique•The technique was validated to identify resistant arecanut genotypes against <i>Phytophthora meadii</i> at the seedling stage.