Screening a Diverse Soybean Germplasm Collection for Reaction to Purple Seed Stain Caused by Cercospora kikuchii.

Purple seed stain (PSS), caused by Cercospora kikuchii, is a prevalent soybean disease that causes latent seed infection, seed decay, purple seed discoloration, and overall quality deterioration. The objective of this research was to screen soybean accessions from the United States Department of Agriculture germplasm collection for resistance to PSS. In total, 123 plant introductions (PI) from 28 different countries, representing maturity groups (MG) III, IV, and V, were screened. Incidence of Cercospora leaf blight (% CLB), visual PSS (% PSS), and seed infected by C. kikuchii (% C. kikuchii) in harvested seed were determined. In 2007, % C. kikuchii was 2 to 51% for MG III, 2 to 35% for MG IV, and 0 to 33% for MG V. In 2008, % C. kikuchii was 0 to 45% for MG III, 1 to 71% for MG IV, and 0 to 15% for MG V. In total, four and ten PI from MG III and IV, respectively, were identified as resistant to PSS in both years. Highly positive correlations were found for inoculated versus noninoculated treatments and for % PSS versus % C. kikuchii infection. The PSS-resistant PI identified in this study will be valuable to breeders in developing resistant cultivars.