Clarification on rust species potentially infecting pea (Pisum sativum L.) crop and host range of Uromyces pisi (Pers.) Wint

Rust is a serious disease of pea whose casual agent is not always understood. In this paper we studied reaction of pea accessions to seven rust species infecting closely related legumes, finding that indeed pea can be infected mainly by Uromyces pisi, followed by Uromyces viciae-fabae. Other rust species like Uromyces striatus, Uromyces ciceris-arietini, Uromyces anthyllidis and Uromyces vignae can also infect and reproduce on pea, although in a minor extent. All U. pisi isolates tested were very virulent on pea accessions, but isolates UpPt-03 and UpKeS-05 (from Palmar de Troya, Spain and Kafr-El-Sheik, Egypt respectively) were significantly most infective. In addition to this we studied in detail the host range of U. pisi by inoculating multiple accessions of various legumes with urediospores of seven isolates of U. pisi from different geographical origins. Both experiments were performed under controlled conditions. Based on the evidence presented here the host range of U. pisi is greater than previously recorded, including genotypes belonging to Cicer arietinum, Vicia articulada, Vicia ervilia and Vicia faba, which were not mentioned before. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.