
Eye-Color Gene May Help Scientists Slow Down
a Wheat PestBy Dawn
Lyons-Johnson September 9, 1998In a botanical version of a relay race, wheat breeders have kept one step
ahead of the Hessian fly, Mayetiola destructor, by breeding resistant
varieties. Now, scientists at the Agricultural Research Service and
Purdue University have made a genetic
discovery about the fly that could help the breeders take a more commanding
lead. ARS is the chief research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Each year Hessian flies cause millions of dollars of damage to wheat crops.
The female fly lays her eggs in unfurled wheat leaves. When the eggs hatch,
larvae crawl down the leaves and feed on plant sap inside the leaf sheath of
young wheat plants or at the nodes of the wheat head. This stunts the seedlings
and can lead to lodging in heading wheat, greatly reducing yields. But the fly is able to overcome each new resistant wheat variety within 8 to
10 years, making it necessary to introduce yet another resistant variety. Since
the number of different genes for resistance in wheat to Hessian fly are
believed to be limited, understanding how the fly overcomes resistance is
essential. Recently, the ARS and Purdue scientists discovered an important link between
two Hessian fly genes: one for white-eye color and another that allows the
insect to overcome a fly-resistance gene in wheat, called H13. The close position of the two fly genes helps the scientists. They can use
the white- eye gene to learn how the other gene--the one enabling the pest to
overcome wheat's H13 defense--works. This will provide valuable information for
breeders and allow scientists to modify genes for resistance in wheat so the
Hessian fly can not overcome them. The ARS scientists are based at the agency's
Crop
Production and Pest Control Research Laboratory at West Lafayette, Ind. Scientific contact: Richard H. Shukle, entomologist, ARS Crop
Production and Pest Control Research Laboratory, West Lafayette, Ind., phone
(765) 494-6351, fax (765) 496-1219,
[email protected].
U.S. Department of Agriculture | |