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ARS Home » Midwest Area » East Lansing, Michigan » Sugarbeet and Bean Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #156686
Title: REGISTRATION OF EL0204 SUGARBEET GERMPLASM WITH SMOOTH-ROOT AND RESISTANCE TO RHIZOMANIA

Author
item McGrath, Jon
item Lewellen, Robert

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/1/2004
Publication Date: 5/1/2004
Citation: McGrath, J.M., Lewellen, R.T. 2004. Registration of EL0204 sugarbeet germplasm with smooth-root and resistance to rhizomania. Crop Science. 44(3):1032-1033.

Interpretive Summary: Sugarbeet growers and processors must transport and dispose of soil harvested with beets, resulting in considerable direct expenses as well as indirect costs associated with the potential to spread soil borne pathogens to uninfected sugarbeet growing regions. Smooth root beets reduce the amount of soil requiring disposal by roughly half that of traditional beets, however in order to be widely adopted, smooth root beets must have the essential combinations of agronomic and disease resistance traits required for economic returns to growers. The current release adds resistance to rhizomania, a devastating root disease that literally translates to 'crazy root' disease, to the current mix of acceptable agronomic traits in the suite of smooth root germplasm releases. This germplasm is expected to be deployed widely since soil disposal is a major concern and rhizomania now infests all sugarbeet growing in the U.S.

Technical Abstract: Sugarbeet germplasm EL0204 is being released to industry for use in creating sugarbeet hybrids with smooth-root (SR), low soil tare characteristics. Low soil tare reduces industry costs by reducing the amount of harvested soil and the attendant soil disposal costs and reducing the spread of soil borne diseases. Previous SR releases have no resistance to rhizomania, a soil borne, fungus transmitted virus that reduced yield and increases soil tare. EL0204 is diploid and multigerm and was selected for smooth-root and rhizomania resistance over a number of generations. EL0204 shares smooth root parentage with previous SR germplasm releases and shows good levels of Aphanomyces and Cercospora resistance, and also shares parentage with rhizomania resistant near isolines of USDA-ARS Salinas C54 [PI593672]. EL0204 has shown excellent yields and high sucrose recovery in rhizomania-infested soils at Salinas, CA and in non-infested agronomic trials at Saginaw, MI.