Perennial Wild Relatives of Chickpea as Potential Sources of Resistance to Helicoverpa armigera

Abstract

The legume pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hu¨bn.), is one of the major constraints to chickpea production, and host plant resistance is an important component for the management of this pest. The levels of resistance in the cultivated chickpea are low to moderate, and therefore, we evaluated 17 accessions of perennial Cicer along with three cultivated chickpea genotypes for resistance to H. armigera. There was a significant reduction in both leaf feeding and larval weights when the larvae were fed on the leaves of Cicer microphyllum Benth. accessions ICC 17146, ICC 17236, ICC 17240, and ICC 17248. Relative resistance index based on leaf feeding, larval survival, and larval weight indicated that C. microphyllum accessions ICC 17146, ICC 17236, ICC 17234, ICC 17240, ICC 17243, and ICC 17248 were highly resistant to H. armigera. Under natural infestation, accessions belonging to C. microphyllum, C. canariense Santos Guerra et Lewis, and C. macracanthum M. Pop suffered a damage rating of <2.0 compared to 4.0 in C. judaicum Boiss. accession ICC 17148 (annual species) and 8.5-9.0 in the cultivated chickpeas (1 = <10% leaf area damaged, and, 9 = >80% leaf area damaged). There was considerable diversity in the accessions belonging to perennial wild species of chickpea, and these can be exploited to increase the levels and diversify the basis of resistance to H. armigera in the cultivated chickpea.

Studies on Growth and Development of Helicoverpa armigera (Hub.) on Various Hosts and Artificial Diet under Laboratory Conditions

“…Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) (Lepidopltera: Noctuidae), a pest of national importance in India, is one of the major limiting factor in the successful cultivation of chickpea (Sharma et al, 2006). However, the insect also causes economic losses to several other crops like tomato, cotton, pigeonpea, sunflower, marigold, groundnut, okra, beans etc.…”

Evaluation of perennial wild Cicer species for drought resistance

“…So far, the existing germplasm has been evaluated for drought resistance, mainly using cultivated chickpes (Silim and Saxena 1993;Johansen et al 1994;Singh et al 1995;Singh et al 1997;Anbessa and Bejiga 2002;Serraj et al 2004;Kashiwagi et al 2006). Although wild Cicer species have been evaluated for different biotic and abiotic stresses (Singh and Weigand 1994;Singh et al 1998;Collard et al 2001;Toker 2005;Sharma et al 2006), there are only a few reports regarding drought resistance in annual wild Cicer species (Kashiwagi et al 2005), and none in perennial wild Cicer species. The purpose of this study was to evaluate perennial wild Cicer species for drought resistance and compare them with annual wild Cicer species and cultivated chickpeas.…”

Assessment of genetic variation, diversity, and resistance to Helicoverpa armigera in cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) undernew agro-climatic zone

“…Climatic variations in temperature and photoperiod during crop growth in different locations have profound effect on days to 50% flowering and days to maturity. Sharma et al (2006) explored and reported natural occurrence of the wild relatives of chickpea near Lahaul valley in Himachal Pradesh, India. Our study was the first attempted to grow and evaluate the 25 cultivated chickpea genotypes in Lahual valley, which experience long days In general, the phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was higher than its genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) implying influence of environment on the genotypes for various traits (Table 2).…”