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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Salinas, California » Crop Improvement and Protection Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #161749

Title: RESISTANCE TO LEAFMINERS IN LETTUCE

Author
item MOU, BEIQUAN
item LIU, YONG BIAO

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/1/2004
Publication Date: 7/20/2004
Citation: Mou, B., Liu, Y. Resistance to leafminers in lettuce. HortScience. 2004. v. 39 (4). p. 766.

Interpretive Summary: N/A

Technical Abstract: Leafminer (Liriomyza spp.) is a major insect pest of many important agricultural crops including lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.). The goals of this study were to evaluate lettuce genotypes for resistance to leafminers and to estimate the heritabilities of leafminer-resistant traits in the field, to examine the association among different resistant traits, and to study the mechanism of leafminer resistance in lettuce. Seventy-eight lettuce accessions and 232 F2 plants of crosses were evaluated for leafminer stings and the production of pupae and flies in the field in 2001 and 2002, and resistant genotypes were subjected to no-choice test. Wild species (Lactuca serriola L., L. saligna L., and L. virosa L.) had significantly fewer stings than cultivated lettuces. Among cultivated lettuces, sting densities were lowest on leaf lettuce and highest on romaine types. The sting results from the field were highly correlated with the results from insect cages (r=0.770 and 0.756 for 2001 and 2003 tests, respectively), suggesting that a cage test can be used to screen for resistance in the field. Broad-sense heritability estimates for stings per unit leaf area in the field were 81.6% and 67.4% for 2001 and 2003 tests, respectively. The number of pupae produced per plant or per leaf was moderately correlated with sting density but was not correlated with leaf weight. Results suggest that both antixenosis and antibiosis exist in lettuce germplasm and resistant genotypes from choice tests remain resistant under no-choice conditions. These findings suggest that genetic improvement of cultivated lettuce for leafminer resistance is feasible.