Prospecting of popcorn hybrids for resistance to fall armyworm

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, is the pest that causes the greatest economic losses for both common corn and popcorn crops, and the use of resistant plant genotypes is an important tool for integrated pest management. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the damage caused by S. frugiperda on single-cross popcorn hybrids under field conditions with natural infestation as well as to study the effect of 11 popcorn hybrids on the S. frugiperda life cycle under laboratory conditions. A completely randomized block design with 4 replicates was used for the field experiment, and a completely randomized design with 10 replicates was used for the laboratory experiment. In the field experiment, the damage caused by fall armyworm, grain yield, and popping expansion were quantified, and a diallel analysis was performed to select the best hybrids. For the laboratory experiment, caterpillars were obtained from laboratory cultures kept on an artificial diet and were fed with leaves from the 6540

Multivariate analysis reveals key traits of fall armyworm resistance in tropical popcorn genotypes

“…Biological and chemical methods are strategies to control FAW, however, plant resistance is especially effective in tropical regions where there is a necessity to reduce environmental damages caused by misuse of pesticides (Cunha et al 2008;Crubelati-Mulati et al 2014). Although transgenic is a control alternative of great importance currently, as it facilitates crop management and reduces the use of highly toxic insecticides, studies have shown that FAW evolved resistance to Cry1F-maize (Farias et al 2014) and CryAb-maize in Brazil (Omoto et al 2016).…”

“…In addition, the work emphasizes that tropical germplasm is an important source of resistance to fall armyworm and ear armyworm in maize (Ni et al 2014). Although these studies clarify that genotypes can present resistance to FAW, few studies have been carried out to analyse popcorn genotypes (Crubelati-Mulati et al 2014;Oliveira et al 2018).…”