SELECTION FOR DOWNY MILDEW RESISTANCE FROM THE REGENERANTS OF PEARL-MILLET

Plants were regenerated from the inflorescence explants of three B lin es of pearl millet showing different degrees of susceptibility to down y mildew disease. Plants were regenerated from the embryogenic callus cultures and grown to maturity in the vicinity of other downy mildew i nfected plants. Progenies of disease free (RO) plants were screened fo r two successive generations in the disease plots. Three somaclones of 23 B (highly susceptible genotype with 97% disease incidence) showed increased level of resistance. Four disease free somaclones were obtai ned each from 81 B (susceptible with 15%) disease incidence) and 841 B (resistant with 7% disease incidence) genotypes. When the populations of these somaclones were screened for some agronomic characters, a si gnificant increase was observed in the population means for plant heig ht and panicle length in two genotypes. The results manifest the genot ypic differences in the extent of somaclonal variation for disease res istance and also for agronomic traits. The variants selected as downy mildew resitant were individually compared with their respective contr ol plants for agronomic traits. Two downy mildew resistant variants re tained the original characters, Thus, the present study demonstrated t he existence of somaclonal variation for downy mildew resistance and s ome agronomic traits in pearl millet.