The objective of our study was to evaluate population growth of the bird cherry-oat aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi L., on varieties of conventional, non-transgenic wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and on transgenic lines derived from ‘Prospect’ wheat and expressing potato proteinase inhibitor II, an inducible insect-defense compound of dicotyledonous plants. In an assay with conventional varieties, ‘Sharp’ and ‘Marshall’ were resistant to R. padi-population growth compared to ‘2375’ and ‘Russ.’ Population growth of R. padi on ‘Ember’ was less than on Russ but did not differ from that on Sharp, Marshall and 2375. A second set of assays with conventional varieties showed that Sharp and Marshall resisted R. padi -population growth compared with ‘Guard’ and ‘Prospect.’ Population growth of R. padi on ‘Butte 86’ and ‘Ivan’ was intermediate and not significantly different from that on the other four conventional varieties. In a third set of assays, transgenic isolines failed to inhibit R. padi-population growth, and, in one assay, population growth of R. padi was greater on isolines than on Prospect wheat. Our results show that Sharp, Marshall and Ember may be important conventional sources of antibiosis resistance against R. padi in wheat, but a better understanding of the expression of potato proteinase inhibitor II in transgenic wheat is needed to clarify the potential use of such compounds against R. padi.
Species 1: Homoptera Aphididae Rhopalosiphum padi (bird cherry-oat aphid)
Keywords: host plant resistance, wheat
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