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Pest Management in Cereal Aphids

Many pests cause very high yield losses in cereals worldwide. Pest control is as old as agriculture and provides a method to keep crops free form pests. Although many live organisms are considered pests, all of them cause significant damage to plants, measured by the crop yield decrease or by a change in its quality. Traditional treatments against plant pests are based on applying excessive amounts of agrochemicals. Additionally, broad spectrum insecticides produce the death of both the target insects and beneficial organisms of those pests. The elimination of natural enemies disrupts the natural balance of crop insects by allowing uncontrolled multiplication of pests, sometimes generating a new pest problem [1] [2] . On the contrary, this aspect is revised in the concept of integrated pest management and its environmental protection practices. This holistic approach to dealing with pests should reduce pesticide use, provide economic savings to farmers and protect both the environment and human health [3]. Aphids belong to the insect family and are considered very harmful pests in cereals. Greenbug and Russian wheat aphid are well- known aphid species. The greenbug damages their hosts by producing chlorosis, reduction of root volume in wheat [4] , barley [5] [6] [7] oat and sorghum [8] [9]. It also reduces the aerial biomass of wheat [10] , barley and rye [11]. When early attacks occur in oats and barley, a decrease in the movement of protein reserve from the seed to the aerial part of the plant has been recorded [12] [13]. Moreover, aphids can inject toxic saliva when feeding from a plant, thus transmitting some viruses. In recent years, the most effective strategy for controlling aphid damage is the development of wheat cultivars that carry resistance genes [14] [15] . Those new cultivars are the best resource to obtain durable insect resistance. For this reason, Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) is a helpful tool to accelerate the production of plant materials carrying resistance genes [16], speeding up its selection and then its transfer into the genetic background of a new cultivar.

  1. ↑ Debach, Paul, and David Rosen. “Biological Control by Natural Enemies”. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press (1991). 440 pages. ISBN 0-521-39191-1.
  2. ↑ Gerson, Uri, and Ephraim Cohen. “Resurgence of Spider Mites (Acari: Tetranychidae) Induced by Synthetic Pyrethroids”. Exp. Appl. Acarol., 6 (1989): 29-46.
  3. ↑ Ehler, Lester E. “Perspective Integrated Pest Management (IPM): Definition, Historical Development and Implementation, and the Other IPM”. Pest Manag Sci 62 (2006): 787–789.
  4. ↑ Burton, Robert L. "Effect of Greenbug (Homoptera: Aphididae) Damage on Roots and Shoots Biomass in Wheat Seedlings”. Journal of Economic Entomology 79 (1986): 633-636.
  5. ↑ Arriaga, Héctor O. “Resistance to Greenbug Toxemia”. Barley news 13 (1969): 58-60.
  6. ↑ Castro, Ana M., Rumi, Clara, and Héctor Arriaga. “Influence of Greenbug on Root Growth of Resistance and Susceptible Barley Genotypes”. Environmental and Experimental Botany 28 (1988): 61-72.
  7. ↑ Gerloff, E. and E. Ortman. “Physiological Changes in Barley Induced by Feeding Stress”. Crop Science 11 (1971): 174-176.
  8. ↑ Castro, Ana M., and Clara Rumi. “Greenbug Damage on the Aerial Vegetative Growth of Two Barley Cultivars”. Environmental and Experimental Botany 23, no. 3 (1987): 263-271.
  9. ↑ Castro, Ana M., Rumi, Clara, and Héctor Arriaga. “Alteraciones en el crecimiento radical de cultivares de sorgo infestados con pulgón verde”. Turrialba 41 (1990): 166-171.
  10. ↑ Burton, Robert L. "Effect of Greenbug (Homoptera: Aphididae) Damage on Roots and Shoots Biomass in Wheat Seedlings”. Journal of Economic Entomology 79 (1986): 633-636.
  11. ↑ Arriaga, Héctor. “El centeno Insave FA. Híbrido sintético resistente a la toxemia del pulgón verde de los cereales”. Revista de la Facultad de Agronomía La Plata XXXII (1956): 190-209.
  12. ↑ Castro, Ana M., Rumi, Clara, and Héctor Arriaga. “Host Plant Isozymes Profiles of Greenbug Susceptible and Tolerant Barley, Oats and Sorghum Cultivars”. Annals Plant Resistance to Insects Newsletter 13 (1987): 39-40.
  13. ↑ Castro, Ana M., Rumi, Clara, and Héctor Arriaga. “Oat Production losses Under Greenbug (Schizaphis graminum, Rondani) Infestation and Forward Recovery”. Turrialba 39 (1987): 97-105.
  14. ↑ Porter, David R., Baker C. A. and M. El-Bouhssini. “Resistance in Wheat to a New North American Russian Wheat Aphid Biotype”. Plant Breeding 124 (2005): 603–604.
  15. ↑ Smith, C. Michael, and Elena V. Boyko. “A Functional Genomics Approach to Identify Temperature Response Genes Modulating Plant Defense Responses to Arthropod Challenge”. In ‘Ecological genomics in Kansas. 4th Ecological Genomics Symposium’. 3–5 Nov. (2006), Kansas City. Pp. 10–14.
  16. ↑ Yencho, G. C., Cohen, M. B., and P. F. Byrne. “Applications of Tagging and Mapping Insect Resistance Loci in Plants”. Annual Review of Entomology 45 (2000): 393–422. http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.ento.45.1.393
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