Comparison of Resistant and Susceptible Cowpea Plants to Cowpea Aphid (Koch) (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

Authors

  • Kristina Lorraine Gonzalez Texas A&M University

Abstract

Aphids are one of the most devastating agricultural pests to multiple plants. Plant transformations are being considered as a population control method. This long-term research aims to characterize the molecular mechanism underlying plant-aphid interaction between the cowpea plant and the cowpea aphid.  A resistant cowpea line (IT98K-205-8) and a susceptible cowpea line (IT98K-589-2) were observed to analyze how effective a resistant cowpea is in comparison to a susceptible one.  Each line was planted, analyzed and scored. Both lines, resistant and susceptible resulted in significantly different results in both room 127 and room 124. Line 205 showed a lower population of aphids starting at day one while line 589-2 population began to decrease on the third day. As seen in this experiment, the overall result was that the resistant line was significantly lower in progeny production than that of the susceptible plant. The survival of the aphid population also decreased on each leaf from day one.  Resistant cowpea plants are potential to reducing the aphid population. Additional research should go into manufacture of cowpea plants that are resistant to aphids to benefit crop production for farmers around the world.

References

Alavanja M. C. R. 2009. Pesticides use and exposure extensive worldwide. NIH Public Access. 24(4): 303-309.

Boussemart, J. P., Leleu H., and O. Ojo. 2016. Exploring cost dominance in crop farming systems between high and low pesticide use. J. Prod Anal. 45(2): 197-214.

Como F., Carnesecchi E., Volani S., Richardson J., Bassan A., et al. 2017. Predicting acute contact toxicity of pesticides in honeybees (Apis mellifera) through a k-nearest neighbor model. Chemosphere. 166: 438-444.

Cornell University. 2017. What is plant transformation? College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Ithaca, NY.

(DAF) Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. 2010. Cowpea aphid. Queensland Government. Queensland, MD.

(DEEDI) Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation. 2009. Aphid-transmitted viruses in vegetable crops. Agri-Science Queensland. Queensland, MD.

Fouad E. A., Abou-Yousef H. M., Abdallah I. S., and M. A. Kandil MA. 2016. Resistance monitoring and enzyme activity in three field populations of cowpea aphid (Aphis craccivora) from Egypt. Crop Protection. 81:163-167.

Lacey L. A. Grzywacz D., Shapiro-Ilan D.J., Frutos R., Brownbridge M., and M. S. Goettel. 2015. Insect pathogens as biological control agents: Back to the future. J. of Invertebrate Pathology. 132: 1-41.

Downloads

Published

2019-01-31