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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Pullman, Washington » Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #131494
Title: VARIATION AMONG PISUM FULVUM ACCESSIONS FOR POD AND SEED RESISTANCE TO PEA WEEVIL

Author
item Clement, Stephen
item HARDIE, DARRYL - AGRIC. WESTERN AUSTRALIA
item Elberson, Leslie

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/1/2002
Publication Date: 3/28/2002
Citation: CLEMENT, S.L., HARDIE, D.C., ELBERSON, L.R. VARIATION AMONG PISUM FULVUM ACCESSIONS FOR POD AND SEED RESISTANCE TO PEA WEEVIL. CROP SCIENCE. 2002. v. 42. p. 2167-2174.

Interpretive Summary: The pea weevil is one of the most intractable pest problems of cultivated pea in eastern Washington and northern Idaho. Farmers in these areas routinely use toxic insecticides to kill weevil adults before they lay eggs on pods; however, seed infestation and damage levels have still approached 64% in some fields in recent years. The development and introduction of pea weevil resistant cultivars would help farmers reduce losses and provide an environmentally safer option to chemical control. Research funded by the USDA-Foreign Agricultural Service-International Cooperation and Development Division, and conducted by an ARS Research Entomologist, identified several weevil-resistant accessions of Pisum fulvum from the seed bank at the Western Regional Plant Introduction Station in Pullman, Washington. Concurrent research in Australia also identified weevil- resistant peas from the seed bank in Pullman. This paper reports the ARS and Australia findings, thereby revealing the existence of natural resistance in the pea genome for pea breeding programs in the United States and Australia. This research is important because it demonstrates the potential of using natural resistance to endow pea cultivars with pea weevil resistance, which in the long term would give growers a cost-effective and environmentally acceptable pest-management option.

Technical Abstract: The pea weevil, Bruchus pisorum, is one of the most intractable pests of cultivated pea and the development of resistant cultivars would give producers more pest management options. Searches for resistance were expanded to Pisum fulvum because no useful weevil resistance was located in P. sativum, the cultivated pea. This research determined the level and extent of pod and seed resistance to pea weevil in accessions of P. fulvum. Life tables revealed the presence of distinct patterns of weevil mortality and survival on entries in U.S. trials. This information along with adult emergence data from entries in an Australia trial was used to group susceptible, moderately resistant, and completely resistant entries. Antibiosis resistance was based on death of larvae on pods, seed testa, and cotyledon tissues in seed. Many larvae died (up to 48%) on pods and mortality of larvae entering seed was 89 to 100% on moderately and completely resistant accessions. Seed damage ratings (1 = little or no damage, dead first instar; 5 = extensive damage, live adult) were high (3.2 to 4.8), intermediate (1.7 to 2.3), and low (1.6 to 2.0) for susceptible, moderately resistant, and completely resistant entries, respectively. These results demonstrate the potential of using the Pisum genome to endow pea cultivars with durable weevil resistance.