Abstract

Post-infectional change in contents of total carbohydrate, total nitrogen, total phenolics, nucleic acids and chlorophyll fractions in the leaves of three groundnut genotypes with varying levels of resistance to blight caused by Phoma microspora Balasubrm, et Narayan., was studied. Total carbohydrate contents of the resistant variety, Ah 8446 and the tolerant variety, POL 2 showed only a marginal variation, while the highly susceptible OSN 2 registered significant increases. There was no appreciable change in total nitrogen content in the resistant variety consequent on inoculation. Increase in the total phenolics contents was significantly greater in the highly susceptible OSN 2 than others. There was no significant alteration in the contents of RNA and DNA in the resistant and tolerant varieties while reduction in the contents of chlorophyll was maximum in the highly susceptible variety.

Keywords: Groundnut blight, Resistance mechanism