Utilization Clonal Selection Program to Improve Resistance Garlic (Allium sativum L.) Against Onion Maggot (Delia antiqua M.)

Abstract

Onion maggot (Delia antiqua M) is an economically important pest of Allium crops throughout the world; thus, management of this pest is required to achieve economic returns. Accordingly, this study aimed to select some clones of garlic resistant to infestation with onion maggot through the implementation three cycles of clonal selection program within some improved garlic clones derived from Balady cultivar. Afterwards, the developed clones and their original population were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Thus, this study was conducted during four successive winter seasons of 2016/2017 to 2019/2020. The obtained results showed, clearly, significant differences among garlic selected clones, as well as their original population in their response to Delia antiqua M. and their bulb characteristics. Where, the selected clones varied between resistant and ability of infestation by onion maggot that was between 0.00% and 22.45%, with classification into five groups by cluster analysis: HR (highly resistant), R (resistant), MR (moderately resistant), MS (moderately susceptible) and S (susceptible). Among the 16 selected clones three clones were HR; and six clones were R to onion maggot. Moreover, improvement percentage for the same character using clonal selection program was between 48.97% to 100%, which reflected that clonal selection could be an effective way to improve onion maggot resistance. Also, utilization of these improved clones will promise in minimize environmental pollution.