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Gene developed through conventional breeding to improve cowpea aphid resistance
July 30, 2009COLLEGE STATION - The cowpea or black-eyed pea, as it is more commonly known, is a New Year's tradition for good luck. But disease and particularly aphids, which can wreck a crop within a few a days, are especially bad luck for the cowpea, according to scientists. Several new lines of cowpeas with genes that are aphid-resistant and less susceptible to disease are currently being tested by researchers with Texas AgriLife and other Texas A&M System entities.
"The cowpea has been an important and popular food crop throughout the southern U.S.," said Dr. B.B. Singh, a visiting professor in the soil and crop sciences department at Texas A&M. "It's commonly known as the southern pea, field pea, crowder pea, black-eyed pea, purple-hull pea and pinkeye pea widely grown in the southern states."
The researchers' discoveries could yield big rewards. An international food crop, the cowpea was most popular in the southern U.S. from the 1930s through '70s, and East Texas remains a large U.S. cowpea-producing region.
And during times of drought, the cowpea can be a viable alternative forage crop for livestock producers, due to its ability to fix nitrogen, tolerate drought and provide high-quality fodder, Singh said. It is a high-quality forage for cattle producers, with a protein content as high as 28 percent in seeds and 17 percent to 20 percent in the fodder after harvesting the seeds.
However, the aphid is currently the biggest threat to cowpea producers, Singh said.
"(Aphids) like dry weather," explained Singh, who has spent his entire career studying the cowpea. "Immediately after infestation, they start sucking the juice (sap) from cowpea leaves, stem, flowers and pods of the plants reducing their growth and development and causing severe reduction in yield. They also spread viruses. Aphids can ruin a crop within a few days."
Singh, came to the department as a visiting professor following his retirement two years ago from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, considered the epicenter of cowpea research.
At Texas A&M, Singh is working with colleagues Dr. J. Creighton Miller, D.C. Sheuring and Dr. Bill Payne using field trials in College Station to find a solution to the aphid problem.
Singh has brought more than 35 lines of cowpeas with drought and aphid tolerance, as well as resistance to other diseases and higher yield potential, to College Station. His work there has involved using conventional breeding methods to cross those lines with six Texas and California varieties in greenhouse and field settings.
"Many of the IITA lines are resistant to aphid, bacterial blight, powdery mildew and drought, whereas most of the U.S. lines are susceptible," Singh said. "A number of crosses were made to transfer the resistance to aphids and drought from the IITA lines to the U.S. lines."
In mid July, an aphid infestation hit the College Station trials, putting the new varieties to the test.
"It's been fairly severe, permitting selection of resistant plants from the F2 and F3 populations," he said. "Due to drought and aphids this crop season, all of the susceptible cowpea varieties and segregating plants have been completely damaged, showing 80 percent to 100 percent yield loss, while the aphid resistant varieties and segregating plants are completely healthy with normal yield. The resistance is simply inherited, very effective and highly stable across environments."
From the segregating populations, the resistant plants with diverse maturity dates, plant type, growth habits and seed types have been selected to meet the need for grain type, fodder-type and pasture-type cowpea varieties, he said.
"These are being advanced to achieve uniformity and multi-location testing for stability of resistance and yield potential," Singh added. The new aphid-resistant, high-yielding varieties could be available to farmers as early as 2011, Singh said.
"The cowpea has worldwide importance as a crop for both human and animal nutrition," said Payne of Texas AgriLife Research, assistant director for research at the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture. "Introducing improved disease- and drought-resistant and higher-yield varieties could not only have tremendous potential for Texas and U.S. agriculture, it could help provide poor and developing countries with an important alternative source of nutrition."
According to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Africa, the cowpea is an important food crop in many African, Asian and South American countries, especially as an alternative source of protein where people cannot afford meat and fish. The crop typically is grown by subsistence farmers with limited agricultural resources, who use it to feed livestock or sell for additional income.
The international Food and Agriculture Organization estimates more than 7.5 million tons of cowpeas are produced annually worldwide, with sub-Saharan Africa responsible for about 70 percent of that amount.
"We are already involved in international research projects in Africa relating to cowpeas," Payne noted. "It's exciting to think where these new activities in College Station and the research already under way in Africa may lead."
Texas A&M AgriLife Communications
And during times of drought, the cowpea can be a viable alternative forage crop for livestock producers, due to its ability to fix nitrogen, tolerate drought and provide high-quality fodder, Singh said. It is a high-quality forage for cattle producers, with a protein content as high as 28 percent in seeds and 17 percent to 20 percent in the fodder after harvesting the seeds.
However, the aphid is currently the biggest threat to cowpea producers, Singh said.
"(Aphids) like dry weather," explained Singh, who has spent his entire career studying the cowpea. "Immediately after infestation, they start sucking the juice (sap) from cowpea leaves, stem, flowers and pods of the plants reducing their growth and development and causing severe reduction in yield. They also spread viruses. Aphids can ruin a crop within a few days."
Singh, came to the department as a visiting professor following his retirement two years ago from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, considered the epicenter of cowpea research.
At Texas A&M, Singh is working with colleagues Dr. J. Creighton Miller, D.C. Sheuring and Dr. Bill Payne using field trials in College Station to find a solution to the aphid problem.
Singh has brought more than 35 lines of cowpeas with drought and aphid tolerance, as well as resistance to other diseases and higher yield potential, to College Station. His work there has involved using conventional breeding methods to cross those lines with six Texas and California varieties in greenhouse and field settings.
"Many of the IITA lines are resistant to aphid, bacterial blight, powdery mildew and drought, whereas most of the U.S. lines are susceptible," Singh said. "A number of crosses were made to transfer the resistance to aphids and drought from the IITA lines to the U.S. lines."
In mid July, an aphid infestation hit the College Station trials, putting the new varieties to the test.
"It's been fairly severe, permitting selection of resistant plants from the F2 and F3 populations," he said. "Due to drought and aphids this crop season, all of the susceptible cowpea varieties and segregating plants have been completely damaged, showing 80 percent to 100 percent yield loss, while the aphid resistant varieties and segregating plants are completely healthy with normal yield. The resistance is simply inherited, very effective and highly stable across environments."
From the segregating populations, the resistant plants with diverse maturity dates, plant type, growth habits and seed types have been selected to meet the need for grain type, fodder-type and pasture-type cowpea varieties, he said.
"These are being advanced to achieve uniformity and multi-location testing for stability of resistance and yield potential," Singh added. The new aphid-resistant, high-yielding varieties could be available to farmers as early as 2011, Singh said.
"The cowpea has worldwide importance as a crop for both human and animal nutrition," said Payne of Texas AgriLife Research, assistant director for research at the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture. "Introducing improved disease- and drought-resistant and higher-yield varieties could not only have tremendous potential for Texas and U.S. agriculture, it could help provide poor and developing countries with an important alternative source of nutrition."
According to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Africa, the cowpea is an important food crop in many African, Asian and South American countries, especially as an alternative source of protein where people cannot afford meat and fish. The crop typically is grown by subsistence farmers with limited agricultural resources, who use it to feed livestock or sell for additional income.
The international Food and Agriculture Organization estimates more than 7.5 million tons of cowpeas are produced annually worldwide, with sub-Saharan Africa responsible for about 70 percent of that amount.
"We are already involved in international research projects in Africa relating to cowpeas," Payne noted. "It's exciting to think where these new activities in College Station and the research already under way in Africa may lead."
Texas A&M AgriLife Communications
Cowpea Current Events and Cowpea News RSSUCR researchers develop genetic map for cowpea, accelerating development of new varieties
Cowpea, a protein-rich legume crop, is immensely important in many parts of the world, particularly drought-prone regions of Africa and Asia, where it plays a central role in the diet and economy of hundreds of millions of people.
Scientists identify gene for resistance to parasitic 'witchweed'
The parasitic flowering plant Striga, or "witchweed," attacks the roots of host plants, draining needed water and nutrients and leaving them unable to grow and produce any grains.
Arctic seed vault opens doors for 100 million seeds
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that originated in over 100 countries.
Plants tag insect herbivores with an alarm
Rooted in place, plants can't run from herbivores—but they can fight back. Sensing attack, plants frequently generate toxins, emit volatile chemicals to attract the pest's natural enemies, or launch other defensive tactics.
Cowpeas could add sustainability to cropping systems
Ground left fallow in the High Plains to store soil moisture between crops may be better off with a legume crop such as cowpeas, according to a Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researcher.
Repel the aphids and you attract the leafhoppers
Things don`t always turn out as you expect when you play with genes AN ATTEMPT to make potato plants resistant to sap-sucking insects has highlighted the unpredictability of genetic engineering. The modified plants unexpectedly turned out to be vulnerable to other kinds of insect pests, demonstrating how important it is to assess each transgenic crop individually. Crops such as maize and cotton have already been made resistant to chewing insects by adding a gene for the bacterial toxin Bt. But Bt doesn`t deter sap-suckers like aphids, so genetic engineers are looking at other natural substances to keep insects at bay, such as the lectin prot
Sick Beans lead to Nanotech
Plant viruses as chemically "programmable" building blocks for nanobiotechnology Farmers get little joy from the cowpea mosaic virus, which attacks legumes. Chemists and molecular biologists at the Scripps Institute in La Jolla are, on the other hand, completely taken with this virus. They are not setting the tiny things loose on plants, however, but have something completely different in mind: the viruses are to act as chemically "programmable" nanobiotechnological building blocks. The goal of nanobiotechnology is to construct everything from the tiniest of components for such things as microcomputers to entire microscopic robots. To achieve this, building blocks whose size is on the order
Sick Beans lead to Nanotech
Farmers get little joy from the cowpea mosaic virus, which attacks legumes. Chemists and molecular biologists at the Scripps Institute in La Jolla are, on the other hand, completely taken with this virus. They are not setting the tiny things loose on plants, however, but have something completely different in mind: the viruses are to act as chemically "programmable" nanobiotechnological building blocks. The goal of nanobiotechnology is to construct everything from the tiniest of components for such things as microcomputers to entire microscopic robots. To achieve this, building blocks whose size is on the order of a few nanometers (1 nm = one millionth of a mm) are needed. The Scripps team h
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