
Winter Wheat Gets New Resistance to Hessian FlyBy Hank Becker August 22, 1997Soft red winter wheat will have improved resistance to the Hessian fly, the
grain's most destructive pest, thanks to a new cultivar and eight new germplasm
lines. Wheat breeders will use the new germplasm to develop improved wheat
cultivars adapted to the eastern and southern states. In recent years, the Hessian fly (Mayetiola destructor) has ravaged
Southeastern wheat crops. The region's warmer climate allows up to six
generations of flies to breed each season. The pest caused an estimated $28
million in damage to the Georgia wheat crop in 1989. But scientists have come up with a new cultivar, named Grant, and eight new
germplasm lines with resistance to the fly. Grant has been field-tested in
Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Ohio. Entomologist Roger Ratcliffe with USDAs Agricultural Research Service cooperated in
the studies with researchers at Purdue
University in West Lafayette, Ind. Ratcliffe is based at the ARS
Crop
Production and Pest Control Research Unit in West Lafayette. A story about
the new wheats appears in the August issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
The story can also be viewed at the World Wide Web at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/aug97/hessian0897.htm Grant offers farmers high yields and improved cold hardiness and disease
resistance. Besides leaf rust and powdery mildew, it resists wheat soilborne
mosaic, wheat spindle streak mosaic and take-all. The new breeding lines--Carol, Erin, Flynn, Iris, Joy, Karen, Lola and
Molly--were developed by individually transferring eight different genes for
Hessian fly resistance into Newton, a commercial hard red winter wheat
susceptible to the pest. In seedling tests, the new germplasm lines were
resistant to one or more of four biotypes of the Hessian fly. Seed is available now from Purdue University and will be available in 1998
from the ARS National Small
Grains Collection at Aberdeen, Idaho. Scientific contact: Roger Ratcliffe, ARS Crop Production and Pest
Control Research Unit, West Lafayette, Ind., phone (765) 494-4606, fax
494-5105, [email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture | |