Evaluation of rice cultivars against Pyricularia oryzae infection in Los Palacios municipality, Cuba

Among the effects of climate change is the rise in temperature that favors the appearance of diseases and mutagenic changes in some of them. As a consequence, cultivars have a variable response of their resistance. The high genetic diversity of the fungus Pyricularia oryzae makes it necessary to periodically evaluate resistance to this pathogenic microorganism in infection beds where there is a high inoculum pressure. The objective of this work was to evaluate in infection beds the response of rice cultivars currently used in the municipality of Los Palacios, in the province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba, to the attack of this disease. It was obtained as results that all cultivars were resistant, but with different degrees of infection. Thus, a methodology with high genetic diversity and inoculum pressure in infection beds should be established to evaluate resistance to P. oryzae in the municipality of Los Palacios.