A Review on Ginger Bacterial Wilt Disease and Its Breeding Approaches

Abstract

Bacterial wilt disease a serious threat for ginger production in worldwide and caused by Ralstonia solanacearum biovar III race 4. Having knowledge on biology, ecology, epidemiology and identification of the pathogen and its interaction with host plants were helpful in designing cost effective breeding approaches and management strategies of the bacteria wilt disease in ginger. Since conventional crop improvement methods for bacterial wilt resistance are not suitable in ginger, due to lack of seed setting behavior leading to limited variability. Under these conditions, tissue culture (multiplication of diseases free ginger seed rhizome production scheme and utilization of tissue culture created variations) and biotechnological tools play very important role in large scale production of disease free planting material which can be introduced to newer areas. Therefore, germplasm introduction, selection or screening and the cloning of resistance genes (candidate gene) and subsequent transformation is the only solution to obtain disease resistant ginger cultivars.

Keywords: Ginger, Bacterial wilt, conventional crop improvement, Biotechnological tools.