Brassica napus L. (Oilseed rape) is a very valuable crop for purposes such as food, feed and industrial use. Simultaneously, several diseases have negatively impacted on the oilseed rape production. In Brassicaceae, a fungal disease caused by Alternaria spp. creates a substantial yield loss risk and is considered amongst the censorious global disease complexes. For this, taking into consideration the economic importance of disease, the present study aimed to bring about the information related to various aspects of disease and to find the status as well as the resistant species by screening of Brassica napus varieties. For two years, a study was carried out in the experimental field at SKUAST-Jammu region. Screening of fifteen genotypes of Brassica napus was done for their disease interaction with Alternaria blight disease (leaf and pod) by visual examination by using the 0-9 scale given by Conn et al. (1990). In the first season the Alternaria blight disease intensity ranged from 15.66 to 44.88 on leaf and 13.7 to 37.76 on pod and in the second season the disease intensity ranged from 18.66 to 49.93 on leaf and 24 to 52.87 on pod. None of the varieties were found completely resistant to Alternaria blight disease. RSPN-28 is the only genotype found moderately resistant to both seasons.

Brassica napus, Alternaria, Screening, Resistant, oilseed rape

In the first year, the genotypes (RSPN0-29, RSPN-28, DGS-1, CNH-11-7, GSL-1, CNH-11-2, EC552608, CNH-13-2 and RL-1359 are moderately resistant to Alternaria blight (on leaf) and genotypes (RSPN-29, RSPN-28, DGS-1, RSPN-25, CNH-11-7, EC552608, CNH-13-2, RL-1359 and HNS-1101 found moderately resistant to Alternaria blight (on pod). In the second year, the genotypes (RSPN-28 and GSL-1) found moderately resistant Alternaria blight (on leaf) and genotypes (RSPN-28, DGS-1, EC552608 and RL-1359) found moderately resistant Alternaria blight (on pod). Overall, genotype RSPN-28 found moderately resistant in both the year. Therefore, our study suggests the farmers in selection of resistant cultivars and shows the status of Alternaria blight severity so to adopt the suitable disease management strategies for future endeavors.

Sunidhi Tiwari, S. K. Gupta, Harpreet Singh, Om Prakash Yadav and Mukesh Kumar Pandey (2022). Screening of Brassica Genotypes against Alternaria Blight under Northern Indian Shivalik Hill conditions. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(3): 1659-1662.