The soybean aphid is a major pest of the crop, and is difficult to control and remedy. There are currently no commercial cultivars with resistance to the pest, but headway has been made in the latest issue of Crop Science, where Clarice Mensah of Michigan State University, and colleagues, document the “Resistance to Soybean Aphid in Early Maturing Soybean Germplasm.”

Soybean aphids can transmit viruses such as Alfalfa mosaic virus, Soybean mosaic virus, and Bean yellow mosaic virus. To identify sources of resistance to such a pest, researchers evaluated 2,147 soybean accessions originally from northern China by hand inoculating them with aphid populations, and evaluating them 10 days after. After two years of evaluation, researchers found that four accessions from Shandong province, PI 567543C, PI 567597C, PI 567541B, and PI 567598B, were resistant to the soybean aphid.

Researchers hope that these strains can be incorporated to soybean germplasm in order to develop commercial cultivars with aphid resistance for use in the United States.

Subscribers to Crop Science may read the complete article at http://crop.scijournals.org/cgi/content/full/45/6/2228

Source: CropBiotech Update