VIEW ARTICLE

Soybean Seed Rot and the Relation of Seed Exudate to Host Susceptibility. B. L. Keeling, Research Plant Pathologist, Southern Region, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with the Delta Branch, Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, Stoneville; Phytopathology 64:1445-1447. Accepted for publication 5 June 1974. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-64-1445.

Pre-emergence seed and seedling rot of soybeans in the Mississippi Valley area of Arkansas and Mississippi was determined to be caused primarily by Pythium ultimum and P. debaryanum. More than twice the quantity of soluble carbohydrate exuded from seed of the susceptible cultivar Hood than from the resistant cultivar Semmes. A third cultivar Lee was intermediate, both in amount of carbohydrate in its seed exudate and in the amount of seed rot. No qualitative differences were detected in the exudates from seed of resistant and susceptible cultivars. A direct relationship between the amount of soluble carbohydrate exuded by a germinating seed and seed rot caused by Pythium spp. was shown in these studies.