The breeding potential of wild potato species resistant to the potato tuber moth, Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller)

Abstract

The potato tuber moth, Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller) is an important pest of potatoes in the field and in stores in warm environments throughout the world . In this study genetic resistance to potato tuber moth was identified in clones of Solanum sparsipilum (coded MBN) originally developed for resistance to bacterial wilt and root-knot nematode . Resistance to this pest in S. sucrense and S. tarijense as well as S. sparsipilum was exploited in wide crosses with diploid and tetraploid cultivated potatoes, and haploids derived from S. tuberosum ; hybrid progenies were produced . Crosses between resistant S . pinnatisectum or S . commersonii and cultivated potatoes failed completely, although S . commersonii did hybridise with two bridging species S. lignicaule and S. capsicibaccatum which are slightly compatible with cultivated potatoes . Resistance to potato tuber moth was transferred to all progenies except those in which S . tarijense was the resistant parent. The development of potatoes resistant to potato tuber moth is discussed in the context of population breeding for the lowland tropics .

Transformation of potato(Solanum tuberosum)cultivars with acry1Ac9 gene confers resistance to potato tuber moth(Phthorimaea operculella)

“…The development of potato plants resistant to PTM could augment existing pest management tools, such as insecticide applications and cultural strategies. However, traditional breeding methods have failed to produce PTM resistant potato cultivars (Chavez et al 1989;Ortiz et al 1989;Arnone et al 1998). Potato plants are easily regenerated in tissue culture and highly susceptible to Agrobacterium infection, which allows genetically engineered potato plants to be easily developed through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation (Mitten et al 1990).…”

Research inSolanum spp. of sources of resistance to the potato tuber mothPhthorimaea operculella (Zeller)

“…Pnt PI 275234.1 offers, in addition, high levels of leaf resistance as expressed by antixenosis in the field. The incompatibility between S. pinnatisectum and S. tuberos,m, caused by the different EBN, makes sexual crosses impossible (Chavez et al, 1988). Somatic hybridization can overcome these barriers (Menke et al, 1996).…”

“…It is known that some cultivar traits, such as earliness and deep tuberization, can hinder field infestation, but no factor of resistance in the tubers of S. tuberosum varieties proved efficacious. Resistant clones were selected from primitive cvs and wild Solanum species at the International Potato Center of Lima (Peru) and were used as parents in a breeding programme, giving rise to genotypes with tuber resistance to the Peruvian population S. ARNONE, S. MUSMECI, L. BACCHE'VI'A, N. CORDISCHI, E. PUCCI, M. CRISTOFARO AND A. SONNINO of PTM (Raman & Palacios, 1982;Chavez et al, 1988: Ortiz et al, 1990. The evaluation of the same progenies using a PTM population collected in Italy produced contrasting results (Arnone et al, 1993).…”

Managing the Colorado potato beetle; the need for resistance breeding

“…Crossing difficulties may be one of the main reasons for the underutilization of wild relatives of potato in breeding. The fact that most cultivated potatoes are tetraploid, whereas most wild relatives are diploid makes it difficult to transfer desirable traits from the wild to the cultivated (Chavez et al 1988). Furthermore, interspecific hybridization is limited to species with the same endosperm balance number (EBN) (Johnston et al 1980).…”