Phenotypic and genotypic characterization were performed to assess heritability, variability, and seed yield stability of pea genotypes used in breeding to increase the pea production area. A European pea diversity panel, including genotypes from North America, Asia, and Australia consisting of varieties, breeding lines, pea, and landraces was examined in 2019 and 2020 in Serbia and Belgium using augmented block design. The highest heritability was for thousand seed weight; the highest coefficient of variation was for seed yield. The highest positive correlation was between number of seeds per plant and number of pods per plant; the highest negative correlation was between seed yield and protein content. Hierarchical clustering separated pea germplasm based on use and type. Different Principal component analysis grouping of landraces, breeding lines, and varieties, as well as forage types and garden and dry peas, confirms that there was an apparent decrease in similarity between the genotypes, which can be explained by their different purposes. Pea breeding should be focused on traits with consistent heritability and a positive effect on seed yield when selecting high-yielding genotypes, and on allowing for more widespread use of pea in various agricultural production systems.

Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi.) Goid has been reported as severe pathogen of many plants worldwide (Su et al., 2001), as well as in Serbia (Tančić et al., 2012; Tančić Živanov et al., 2018). However, there has been no formal report of the M. phaseolina causing dry root rot of chickpea in Serbia. In June 2018, first symptoms were registered on affected field plants grouped in patches on approximately 10% of chickpea plants in the area of 3 acres at Rimski Šančevi, Serbia. Withering and death of aerial parts, as well as root rot were observed on chickpea plants at the V6 growth stage. Cuttings from 5 chickpea plants with symptomatic root tissue were surface disinfected with 1% NaOCl solution for 5 min, rinsed three times in sterile distilled water, air dried on sterilized filter paper and plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and water agar (WA) amended with 100 mg/liter streptomycin sulfate (Sigma-Aldrich). After 7 days of incubation at 28°C in the dark, isolates were preliminary identified according their...

The characterization of 41 common bean cultivars and landraces from breeding collection of Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, Serbia, was done based on phenotypic traits and microsatellite markers. Phenotypic traits were chosen from Bioversity International descriptor list. In addition, main yield components were investigated. Analysis of phaseolin type revealed affiliation of cultivars and landraces to Mesoamerican or Andean gene pool. Cultivars and landraces demonstrated significant diversity level with regard to studied phenotypic traits. Identified variation showed high potential for developing new cultivars with desirable combination of traits. Principal component analysis based on phenotypic traits separated bean cultivars and landraces in two groups, which corresponded to Mesoamerican and Andean determined according to phaseolin type. Putative hybrids, with combination of traits between gene pools were also identified. Analysis of microsatellite data, using twenty-two SSR primer pairs, showed medium gene diversity in studied material. Microsatellite-based cluster analysis separated genotypes in two discrete clusters and several subclusters. No clear separation according to gene pool was found between the clusters, however grouping according to gene pool and patterns of phenotypic variation, following these gene pools, were observed within subclusters. Knowledge on detailed relationships of cultivars and landraces based on phenotypic and molecular data would facilitate identification of candidates for future breeding.

A field experiment was conducted at the experimental field of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops in Novi Sad to investigate the effect of forage winter pea and winter oat intercropping on ascochyta blight and powdery mildew infections. Seeding rations of pea and oat in Treatment 1 (50:50%) and Treatment 2 (75:25%, respectively) reduced ascochyta leaf infection by 32.5% and 12.8%, and powdery mildew infection by 12.3% and 17.5%, respectively, compared to pea monoculture used as a control (Treatment 3). The same seeding rations in Treatment 1 and 2 reduced ascochyta blight on pea plants by 37.2% and 18.3%, respectively. However, there were no significant differences between the treatments in reducing powdery mildew on plants. The effects of different treatments on the average number of pods per plant, seed per pod, shriveled pods and seed weight were analyzed using Spearman?s correlation coefficient. Negative but not statistically significant effects on those measured parameters were registered in Treatments 2 and 3, while Treatment 1 showed positive effects on all parameters except shriveled pods. According to all data obtained in this research, the intercropping mixture of pea and oat at 50:50% seeding ratio had the best effect on the measured parameters while the intercropping mixture of pea and oat at 75:25% seeding ratio had low to moderate effect in comparison with pea monocrop.