Advances in pest-resistant varieties of soybean

Description

A number of insect pests have been threatening soybean production in North America, including lepidopteran defoliators, coleopteran defoliators and hemipteran sapsuckers. Among various control methods, host-plant resistance has been of the greatest interest as it is economically and environmentally friendly. This chapter will review recent advances in research on improving soybean with host-plant resistance in North America, and discuss challenges of developing highly insect-resistant cultivars with competitive yield performance. The chapter will cover attempts to genetically engineer soybean with Bt insecticidal protein genes as well as gene pyramiding in order to gain broad and durable resistances against multiple insects. The chapter includes a review of future trends and points the reader towards further reading in this area.

Table of contents

1 Introduction 2 Mechanisms of HPR 3 Insect resistance in the soybean germplasm 4 Breeding challenges 5 Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) soybean 6 Case study: developing aphid-resistant varieties 7 Conclusion 8 Future trends 9 Where to look for further information 10 References