Sources of resistance in wheat to Russian wheat aphid, Sunn pest and Hessian fly, identified using the Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy (FIGS)

Russian wheat aphid (RWA), Diuraphis noxia (Kurdjumov), Sunn pest, Eurygaster integriceps Puton, and Hessian fly, Mayetiola destructor (Say) are the most important insect pests of wheat in North Africa, West and Central Asia. Host plant resistance is the most economical and practical means for controlling these insects. The Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy (FIGS) was used to identify three trait-specific best-bet subsets, totaling 1544 accessions of bread wheat and durum wheat, selected from a total of 16,000 geo-referenced accessions conserved in the genebanks of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the Vavilov Institute and the Australian Winter Cereals Collection (www.figstraitmine.org ). The selected material was screened in the field, and greenhouse in Syria for resistance to RWA and Sunn pest. The screening for Hessian fly resistance was carried out in the greenhouse in Syria, Morocco and the USA. Twelve bread wheat lines were found resistant to RWA, one durum wheat and eight bread wheat accessions with good levels of resistance at the vegetative stage to overwintered Sunn pest adults, and 23 durum wheat lines resistant to the Great Plains (GP) Hessian biotype in the USA. These resistant accessions will be used as sources of resistance in the breeding programs, which will contribute to the overall integrated pest management program designed to control damage from these insects in North Africa, West and Central Asia, and elsewhere. This study also showed the effectiveness of the FIGS approach to mine genebanks for valuable traits.