Date: 3/29/99

Time: 1:45

Type: Symposium

Number: 35

Maize resistance to multiple insects

*C.A. Abel, Southern Insect Management Lab, USDA-ARS, Stoneville, MS 38776
Contact e-mail: cabel@iastate.edu

The development of maize with resistance to multiple insects would be vital to any pest management program designed to control the primary pests of the crop. Eleven accessions of maize, Zea mays L., from Peru were previously identified as resistant to leaf feeding and sheath and collar feeding by European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner). A backcross procedure was used to successfully introgress the resistance trait into two high yielding inbred lines. Fifteen experimental lines derived from the backcrossing program were evaluated for resistance to the European corn borer; corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie); fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith); and sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis (Fabricius). All entries were resistant to leaf feeding by European corn borer and 11 entries were resistant to sheath and collar feeding by European corn borer. Two entries, 100-R-3 and 116-B-10, were resistant to the fall armyworm and had varying levels of resistance to all of the insects tested. Experimental line 81-9-B was highly resistant to corn earworm. Experimental line 107-8-7 was resistant to the corn earworm while maintaining low levels of maysin, a chemical commonly associated with corn earworm resistance. These experimental lines may provide useful genes for the development of multiple pest resistant maize.

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