Author
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Robinson, Arin |
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Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 2/15/1999 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Nematodes are microscopic worms that live in the soil. There are more than 10,000 different kinds and many can be devastating to crops because of the damage they cause while feeding on roots. In some crops, nematode resistant crop varieties have been developed that are not damaged by nematodes and that somehow prevent nematodes from feeding. The purpose of this study was to examine the possibilities for developing varieties of cotton that are resistant to the reniform nematode. The reniform nematode is the most important nematode pest of cotton in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi and causes serious damage in six other states as well. Based on the information in more than 1,000 published studies, the development of resistance to the reniform nematode in cotton should be possible. Research that would contribute to the development of reniform nematode resistance in cotton includes genetic crosses between existing, weakly resistant varieties of cotton, a search for highly resistant plants among 2,000 kinds of wild cotton in the National Cotton Collection, the transfer of resistance genes from plants related to cotton through special cell culture techniques, and the introduction of man-made genes into cotton with the modern methods of molecular biology. Technical Abstract: The reniform nematode, Rotylenchulus reniformis, has a wide host range including more than 300 dicot, monocot and coniferous species in 77 plant families. Currently there is no single genotype of Upland cotton known that has an agronomically useful level of resistance to R. reniformis. Options for germplasm-based management of R. reniformis in Upland cotton include crop rotation, development of tolerant cultivars, and development of resistant cultivars through conventional breeding or genetic engineering. Resistance might be achieved from within G. hirsutum by pyramiding known sources of partial resistance or by discovering new sources among approximately 2,000 untested accessions in the U. S. Cotton Germplasm Collection. Alternatively, resistance could be transferred from other Gossypium species via triple species hybrids or monosomic addition lines. Other options would employ techniques of molecular biology to introduce naturally-occurring nematode resistance genes already cloned fro unrelated plants or artificially engineered genes that poison the nematode, kill the nurse cells within the plant on which it feeds, or prevent the development of those cells. |
