Eco-Geographical and Botanical Patterns of Resistance to Lepidoptera Insects in Brassica rapa L.

• Published in: Plants
• Main Authors: Anna M. Artemyeva, Anastasia B. Kurina
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2024
• Subjects: Brassica rapa L. crops; biodiversity; diamondback moth Plutella xylostella; cabbage moth Mamestra brassicae; herbivore pest resistance; geographical trials; Botany; QK1-989; Arctic; Rapa
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13050673; https://doaj.org/article/d92ed29cc35c440eaf712784d9148d2d

In the context of the widespread expansion of damage by herbivorous pests of Brassica crops, taking into account the requirements for minimizing pesticide pollution of the environment, it is important to have fundamental knowledge of the geographical features of the distribution of pests and about the botanical confinement of plant resistance in order to develop a strategy for creating new Brassica cultivars with complex resistance to insects. The relevance of our work is related to the study of the variability in the degree of resistance of the extensive genetic diversity of Brassica rapa accessions to the main herbivorous pests of Brassica crops in contrasting ecological and geographical zones of the Russian Federation (Arctic, northwestern, and southern zones). We have studied the distribution and food preferences of Lepidoptera insects (diamondback moth Plutella xylostella and cabbage moth Mamestra brassicae ) on a set of 100 accessions from the VIR B. rapa collection (Chinese cabbage, pakchoi, wutacai, zicaitai, mizuna, and leaf and root turnips) in the field in three zones of the Russian Federation. We have found that the diamondback moth and cabbage moth are largely harmful in three zones of the European part of the Russian Federation, although the degree of damage to plants by these insects varies by year of cultivation. On average, for the set studied during the two years of the experiment, the degree of plant damage by both pests in the Arctic zone was low and almost low, and in the northwestern and southern zones, it was medium. It was noted that diamondback moth damage was greater in the northwestern zone in both years and in the southern and Arctic zones in 2021, while in 2022, the degree of cabbage moth damage was slightly higher in the southern and Arctic zones. Under the conditions of field diamondback moth damage, the accessions of Chinese cabbage, wutacai, and mizuna turned out to be the most resistant (the damage score was 1.92–1.99), whereas the accessions of wutacai and pakchoi were the most ...