Laboratory Versus Field Response of Potato Genotypes to Oxidant Stress. N. E. De Vos, Former Graduate Assistant, Department of Horticulture, The Pennsylvania State University and U.S. Regional Pasture Research Laboratory, University Park 16802. E. J. Pell, Associate Professor, Department of Plant Pathology and Center for Air Environment Studies, R. R. Hill, Jr., Research Agronomist, USDA, ARS, and R. H. Cole, Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture, The Pennsylvania State University and U.S. Regional Pasture Research Laboratory, University Park 16802. Plant Dis. 67:173-176. Accepted for publication 9 July 1982. Copyright 1983 American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-67-173.

Foliar resistance of 26 potato (Solanum tuberosum) cultivars and genotypes from a seven-parent diallel to oxidant stress was assessed after exposure either to 774 µg/m³ ozone for 3 hr under laboratory conditions at University Park, PA, or to ambient oxidants at New Brunswick, NJ. Controlled ozone exposures provided a reliable method for identifying resistance to oxidant stress that would be effective over a range of field environments. Genotypes that were relatively susceptible to ozone in laboratory tests often appeared resistant to oxidant injury in the field, but genotypes susceptible to oxidant stress in the field were also susceptible in the laboratory. The mode of inheritance of resistance to ozone, as indicated by the relative importance of general and specific combining ability in the diallel analysis, varied among laboratory and field experiments.

Keyword(s): air pollution, genetics.