Antixenosis and antibiosis to pea aphid in Pisum spp. germplasm

Abstract

Acyrthosiphum pisum is a polyphagous aphid of major importance on pea crop to which little resistant cultivars are available. In the frame of LEGATO project we screened a germplasm collection of Pisum spp. under field conditions at Córdoba, Spain over two seasons. A number of accessions displayed significantly lower levels of infestation than the check Messire in both seasons. Selected accessions were further studied in pot assays under controlled conditions corroborating field data. Susceptible check cv. Messire showed the highest levels of aphid infestation and the highest damage as shown by plant wilting. On the opposite side, accession P40 showed the lowest infestation and the lowest level of plant damage at all observation times. Accession P29 showed similar values of aphid infestation at all time points than Messire, but suffered less damage both in terms of chlorosis and wilting. Accession P665 showed moderate infestation but high chlorosis. Multiple choice assay showed that P40, P29 and P665 were less preferred than Messire.