Standardization of Hydroponics based procedure for High-Throughput Screening and its Application for identification of differential host response in Safflower against Fusarium oxysporum carthamii.

Safflower is an important crop plant catering to the livelihoods of a large number of farmers in Indian Deccan Plateau. Fusarium oxysporum carthamii (Foc) infects Safflower, during early stages in Safflower life cycle and is responsible for a substantial reduction in its productivity. One of the approaches to introduce Foc-resistance in safflower cultivars is through introgression of genomic regions from the resistant donor accessions. In an attempt to quickly identify resistant germplasm, a high throughput hydroponics based screening protocol was standardized and applied to identify multiple resistant accessions from the genetically diverse germplasm available in the laboratory. Based on the percent disease incidence (pdi) the accessions were categorized as resistant, moderately resistant or susceptible. We believe that these accessions will be valuable in identifying the resistant locus and its introgression in the cultivated varieties of Safflower. Additionally, the hydroponics based approach will serve as a template for the screening of Safflower germplasm as well as for the development of similar protocols to screen other crops for different pathogens.