Indian Phytopath. 66 (2) : 215-216 (2013) Groundnut (Arachis hypogea L.) is an important oilseed, food and fodder crop which is one of the five most important oil seed crops of the world. In India, groundnut is grown in an area of 5.47 million ha with a production of 5.51 million tones (2). Peanut bud necrosis disease (PBND) caused by peanut bud necrosis tospovirus (PBNV) vectored by Thrips palmi Karny (9) is a major disease of groundnut in South East Asia especially in India causing an yield loss of 89 million US dollars (1). The yield loss due to PBND in groundnut mainly depends on the time of infection. If the infection occurs on young plants (<60 days) pod yield loss will be 100% (6). On the basis of severity of PBNV incidence, a number of “hot- spots” such as Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh), Rajendranagar, Kadiri and Palem (Andra Pradesh), Latur (Maharashtra), Tikamgarh (Madhya Pradesh) and Raichur (Karnataka) have been identified (3). Host plant resistance is an economical as well as desirable component in the management of viral diseases. Since, PBND is destructive disease, identification of genotypes that can resist/tolerate the disease during early stages of crop growth are useful in minimizing yield loss due to the disease. Although, some varieties are identified as resistant/tolerant to PBND but most of them do not have the desirable pod features. Screening procedures to identify groundnut genotypes with resistance to PBND have relied mainly on natural field infection (4). Since, Raichur is one of the ‘hot spots’ for PBNV infection in groundnut and the incidence of PBND can reach up to 75 per cent (5), it is suitable for screening of germplasm against the disease. Hence, during the present study 419 interspecific derivatives of groundnut obtained from Directorate of Groundnut Research (DGR), Junagadh were screened against the disease under natural epiphytotic condition and the resistant lines were evaluated for the pod features. The experiment was conducted during kharif, 2010 and Rabi/summer, 2010-11, at MARS, Raichur. A total of 419 interspecific derivatives of groundnut collected from DGR, Junagadh were screened following ‘infector row’ technique. Each entry was sown in single row of 5m length flanked by a susceptible check KRG-1 at every fourth row, with a spacing of 30 cm between rows and 10 cm between plants. The crop was raised as per the recommended package of practices except for the plant protection measures against PBND. The screening was done under natural disease incidence and final observation on reaction of genotypes to PBND was recorded at 30, 60 and 90 DAS (Days after sowing) and final incidence was recorded on a week before harvest of the crop. Total number of plants and number of PBND plants in each entry were counted and per cent disease incidence was calculated. The entries were grouped into different categories following 0 to 5 scale (7). The resistant entries were also evaluated for the yield parameters viz., dry pod yield, 100 seed weight, shelling per cent and sound matured kernels (SMK) percentage were recorded. Dry pods collected from five randomly selected plants in each row are weighed and mean of five plants is calculated. For shelling percentage, 100 grams of dry groundnut pods were taken randomly from each entry and the kernels obtained after shelling of these pods were weighed. The shelling percentage was worked out by the following formula. Kernel weight Shelling (%) = ——————– × 100 Pod weight Hundred kernels of groundnut were selected randomly after shelling from each entry and their weight was recorded in terms of grams.One hundred kernels were taken randomly and number of sound matured kernels was counted among them to record per cent sound matured kernels. A high PBND incidence of 51 and 41 per cent in kharif and rabi respectively was observed on susceptible check KRG-1 which is sufficient for screening of germplasm. Based on the performance of genotypes over two seasons, entries have categorized into six reaction groups, 42 exhibited highly resistant reaction, 77 were resistant, 135 entries recorded moderately resistant, 148 entries were susceptible and 18 showed highly susceptible reaction (Data not shown). Many entries resistant to PBND have been reported earlier by screening under natural epiphytotic conditions. Sunkad et al. (7) reported that, genotypes viz., DRG-18, ICG-7812, ICG- 10, ICGV-80325, JSSP-3, KGN-22 and PI-393516 were found highly resistant and KRG-1, TMV-2 were susceptible to peanut bud necrosis disease. Thakare et al. (8) identified six Sources of peanut bud necrosis disease resistance in groundnut with desirable yield parameters and pod features A. SRINIVASARAGHAVAN*, GURURAJ SUNKAD 1 , S.K. BERA 2 and MUTTANNA REVADI 1 1 University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur 584 102, Karnataka, India 2 Directorate of Groundnut Research, Junagadh 362 001, Gujarat, India Key words: Groundnut, Screening, PBND, PBNV, Pod features SHORT COMMUNICATION *Corresponding author: sraghavan3628@gmail.com