ARS | Publication request: Genomics of Insect-Soybean Interactions

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: December 4, 2006
Publication Date: May 2, 2008
Citation: Parrott, W., Walker, D.R., Zhu, S., Boerma, H., All, J. 2008. Genomics of Insect-Soybean Interactions. In: G. Stacey (ed.) Genetics and Genomics of Soybean. New York, NY: Springer. p. 269-291.

Interpretive Summary: Attempts to develop high-yielding insect-resistant soybean cultivars using conventional breeding approaches have been largely unsuccessful. However, since the mid-1990s DNA markers and other genomics tools and techniques have been used to map and characterize insect resistance genes at quantitative trail loci (QTLs), and to transfer these genes from agronomically poor sources to the genetic backgrounds of high-yielding adapted cultivars. Although little is known about the nature of soybean resistance genes and insect resistance mechanisms, genomics research on soybean and other plants has provided clues about some genetic mechanisms. This chapter summarizes what is currently (late 2006) known about the genomics of soybean insect resistance, and should be of particular interest and value to soybean breeders and entomologists.

Technical Abstract: The dissection of plant-insect interactions has lagged behind that of interactions between plants and other types of pests. Insect pests interact with plants in a variety of ways, ranging from piercing and sucking of phloem to consumption of leaves and other tissues. Hence, a wide range of genetic mechanisms that affect plant-insect interactions can be expected to exist. In soybean, resistance to various insects is conditioned by a variety of QTLs. One of these conditions physical resistance to insects by affecting the pubescence on the leaf surface; the modes of action of the others remain unknown.