Genetic control of Asian rust in soybean

The objective of this study was to investigate the genetic mechanisms of soybean resistance to Asian rust (Phakopsora pachyrhizi Syd. & P. Syd). F2 and F3 generations from 15 diallel crosses involving six soybean cultivars, FT-2, EMBRAPA 48, BRS 154, BRS 184, BRS 214, BRS 231, were used to analyze the genetic control of Asian rust resistance in the soybean parents tested. Genetic models were fitted to means and variances of the generations tested in a completely randomized field experiment with 5,700 hill plots. The experiment was spray-inoculated twice with an isolate that was first detected during the 2002/03 season in Mato Grosso (MT) State and presently prevail in Central Brazil, at a six-day interval, on borders rows and on the useful area, respectively, with a 10(4) spores/ml distilled H2O suspension. Assessments were made using a diagrammatic scale for disease severity at seven and 39 days after the first detection of Asian rust in the experiments. Evaluations made in the second assessment (39 days) discriminated better between genotypes. Selection at early plant developmental stages may not result in adult resistant plants. Cultivar FT-2, which had presented monogenic resistance to a rust isolated that prevailed in the first two years of rust occurrence in Brazil, showed no resistance to the MT State rust strain used in this experiment, but eleven crosses showed genetic variability for resistance in the second assessment. Soybean rust resistant genes showing predominantly additive effects are dispersed among parents. Narrow sense heritability values ranging from 0.42 to 0.74 at the F3 family level in the second assessment suggested that selection of resistant genotypes is feasible.