Abstract

Studies were conducted to screen selected 199 mulberry genetic resources for pink mealy bug Maconellicoccus hirsutus Green causing Tukra disease. The method suggested for screening is suitable for assessing large collections of accessions/varieties and also better than the method of percentage of leaf damage assessment adopted in small-scale pot culture experiments as also Percent Disease Index (PDI) scale in the All India Coordinated Experiments (AICE) trials. Data collected for six crops during different seasons following the grading system formulated and Tukra Resistance Index (TRI) has been worked out for individual crop. Based on the average TRI, the accessions were grouped into No incidence (G0) with 12 accessions, low incidence (G1) with 36 accessions, moderate incidence (G2) with 72 accessions, high incidence (G3) with 72 accessions and very high incidence (G4) with 7 accessions. Resistant mulberry accessions can be utilized for further breeding programmes

Keywords: Maconellicoccus hirsutus, Tukra, mulberry genetic resources, phytotoxiemea