The confirmation of a new disease in the Brazilian tangerine orchards, the alternaria brown spot, has been concerning citrus growers because of the serious damages to commercial crops of susceptible varieties, such as Ponkan tangerine and Murcott tangor. In this research, in vitro and in vivo inoculations of Alternaria alternata fungus were held in 54 different varieties of the tangerine group selected from the Citrus Germoplasm Bank of Centro APTA Citros Sylvio Moreira, Instituto Agronomico, Cordeirópolis, State of São Paulo, Brazil, aiming to find varieties with more resistance. First, a pathogenicity test with ten different A. alternata isolates was made to select the most aggressive one. After this, inoculations in detached leaves and seedlings were held and, approximately two (in vitro) and three (in vivo) days after, the number of lesions in each leaf was counted, and the disease severity estimated with diagrammatic scale help (in vivo). More than a half of varieties showed symptoms of the disease, however with different levels of susceptibility. Varieties like South African tangerine and Orlando tangelo were the most susceptible; on the other hand the satsumas and willow leaf group and some tangerines, like Thomas and Fremont, showed resistance, indicating new options to the brazilian citriculture.
brown spot; Citrus reticulata; varietal resistance
