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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #161285
Title: DEPLOYING RESISTANCE TO APHIDS FOR OPTIMUM PROTECTION IN WHEAT

Author
item Porter, David
item Burd, John
item Huang, Yinghua

Submitted to: International Plant Protection Congress
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/28/2004
Publication Date: 5/13/2004
Citation: Porter, D.R., Burd, J.D., Huang, Y. 2004. Deploying resistance to aphids for optimum protection in wheat [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Plant Protection Congress, May 11-16, 2004, Beijing, China. p. 319.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The greenbug [Schizaphis graminum (Rondani)] and Russian wheat aphid [Diuraphis noxia (Mordviklo)] are serious pests of wheat (Triticum aestivum L) in the United States. Excellent sources of resistance to both aphids exist in wheat and are now being developed for deployment. Deployment strategies (i.e., pyramiding, sequential release of single genes, etc.) have been formulated in attempts to maximize the durability of the resistance and optimize protection of the crop. Several factors should be considered when developing these deployment strategies, such as the ease of development of the resistant wheat and the impact the deployment may potentially have on the aphid population. This study examined factors influencing plant resistance development, the plant-aphid interface, and aphid populations, and how these factors may shape the development of successful deployment strategies. An example of one factor and how it may influence a deployment strategy is aphid population virulence genetics. In the United States, greenbug populations are known to have high levels of inherent diversity for virulence genes, while Russian wheat aphid populations have been characterized as very homogeneous. The pyramiding of resistance genes to optimize protection against greenbug has been shown to be ineffective against such a genetically diverse aphid population. Optimizing protection by deploying pyramided resistance genes against the Russian wheat aphid may prove more useful, due to the limited virulence genetic diversity of this aphid, but at this point it is still a matter of conjecture and debate.