Comparing destructive and non-destructive methods for Sclerotinia sclerotiorum inoculation in common bean

Abstract

White mold (WM), caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary, is one of most important diseases affecting the common bean crop (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). The choice of inoculation method for the assessment of genotypes is a great challenge in plant breeding for resistance to S. sclerotiorum (Ferreira et al. 2019). Furthermore, optimization of the original methods have been proposed (Arkwazee and Myers 2017). The comparison between destructive and non-destructive methods of inoculation of S. sclerotiorum in common bean has been carried out and the implications are discussed in this work.