Abstract
Corn leaf aphids (Rhopalosiphum maidis Fitch) are found throughout the year on maize in Hawaii and occasionally cause yield loss. Sweet corn inbred Hi38-71 was observed to have high field resistance to aphids and was chosen for this genetic study. An artificial infestation technique was developed using hair-pin clip cages (2.2 cm diameter) which we devised and built. The cages were applied to field-grown plants into which three wingless viviparous adults were placed. Aphid populations were classified on a 1–10 rating scale after about 2 weeks based on digital images of the cages. Mean aphid coverage ratings were 2.97 for the resistant parent and 7.28 for the susceptible parent (representing >200 insects per cage). The F1 hybrids showed similar susceptibility (6.72), showing resistance to be recessive in nature. Six generations of the cross between Hi38-71 and susceptible inbred Hi27 were artificially infested to provide a generation mean analysis of 360 treated plants over two growing seasons. A joint scaling test showed that the fit to a 3-parameter additive-dominance model satisfactorily explained the observed variability with no assumed linkage or epistasis. We conclude that resistance to corn leaf aphid in Hi38-71 is conferred by a single recessive gene labeled aph. These results concur with a previous study under uncontrolled natural infestation in a single environment. The hair-pin clip cage method was most effective in distinguishing resistant and susceptible genotypes under diverse natural growing conditions in Hawaii.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for the support and help from the staff of Waimanalo research station. This study was financially supported by the Tropical Subtropical Agriculture Research, Specific Research Grants, USDA. We also thank the anonymous reviewers.
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So, YS., Ji, H.C. & Brewbaker, J.L. Resistance to corn leaf aphid (Rhopalosiphum maidis Fitch) in tropical corn (Zea mays L.). Euphytica 172, 373–381 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-009-0044-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-009-0044-z