RESEARCH ARTICLE Evaluation of Cultivated and Wild Allium Accessions for Resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cepae Ellojita Rout · Pradyumna Tripathy · Satyabrata Nanda · Sanghamitra Nayak · Raj Kumar Joshi Received: 30 September 2013 / Revised: 19 September 2014 / Accepted: 4 February 2015 © The National Academy of Sciences, India 2015 Abstract Fusarium basal rot (FBR) caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cepae (FOC) is a highly destructive soil borne disease incurring heavy damage in pre and post harvest onion and garlic crops worldwide. Only a few onion lines exhibit partial resistance against the pathogen and there is a need for identification of more effective re- sistance sources for use in breeding programmes. Selected sets of wild onion and garlic accession and seven related Allium species were screened for resistance to Fusarium basal rot using three FOC isolates. FOC infection revealed significant variation among the evaluated Allium species (at P = 0.001). A. sativum accession ‘CBT-As153’ showed high level of resistance to each isolate while A. cepa ac- cession ‘CBT-Ac77’ exhibited intermediate resistance. Among related Allium species, A. fistulosum, A. roylei and A. schoenoprasum were highly resistant, A. tuberosum had mixed response while A. griffithianum was susceptible. Further, the root density of Allium species negatively cor- related with disease incidence for different FOC isolates. Thus, the present study suggests that besides related Allium species, A. sativum ‘CBT-As153’ can be used as a potential donor of FBR resistance for genetic improvement of onion and garlic in India. Keywords Allium cepa · Allium sativum · Allium sp. · Disease resistance · Fusarium basal rot · Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cepae Introduction Onion (Allium cepa L.) also called as “queen of kitchen” is a high value spice cum bulbous vegetable crop cultivated in almost all parts of the world. Besides high food value, it is attributed with several medicinal properties and is used in treatment of chickenpox, influenza, measles and cardio- vascular diseases, etc. It acts as a source for anticancerous drugs [1, 2]. On a worldwide basis, onion ranks as one of the five most important fresh market vegetable crops [3]. Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is also a unique member of the family Alliaceae and used throughout history for both culinary and medicinal purposes. Currently, garlic is often categorized as a stimulant, diaphoretic, expectorant and diuretic due to the presence of allicin and essential oils in the bulb and leaves [4]. India has the second largest land area next only to China under onion and garlic production [5]. The International Trade Centre (ITC), Geneva has recorded an enormous rise in the global demand for onion and garlic in recent times. However, with only 10.16 t/ha and 4.32 t/ha, India ranks only 102nd for onion and 74th for garlic in terms of global productivity [5]. Among sev- eral factors, diseases are the most important cause associ- ated with low productivity. Fusarium basal rot (FBR) caused by Fusarium oxyspo- rum f. sp. cepae (FOC) is a highly destructive root and bulb disease of onion and related Allium species in the temperate and subtropical regions of the world [6]. As many as 18 FOC isolates have been recorded under field conditions [7]. It is responsible for causing severe loss in productivity at Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s40011-015-0506-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. E. Rout · S. Nanda · S. Nayak · R. K. Joshi (&) Centre of Biotechnology, Siksha O Anusandhan University, Bhubaneswar 751003, Odisha, India e-mail: rajkumar.joshi@yahoo.co.in; rajjoshi@soauniversity.ac.in P. Tripathy College of Horticulture, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Chiplima, Odisha, India 123 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., India, Sect. B Biol. Sci. DOI 10.1007/s40011-015-0506-0