Unanticipated benefits and potential ecological costs associated with pyramiding leafhopper resistance loci in rice.

ABSTRACT: We tested the hypotheses that increasing the number of anti-herbivore resistance loci in crop plants will increase resistance strength, increase the spectrum of resistance (the number of species affected), and increase resistance stability. We further examined the potential ecological costs of pyramiding resistance under benign environments. In our experiments, we used 14 near-isogenic rice lines with zero (T65: recurrent parent), one, two or three resistance loci introgressed through marker-assisted selection. Lines with two or more loci that were originally bred for resistance to the green rice leafhopper, Nephotettix cincticeps, significantly reduced egg-laying by the green leafhopper, N. virescens. Declines in egg-number and in nymph weight were correlated with the number

SUBMITTER: Horgan FG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6358143 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature