Preference Assessment of White-backed Planthopper Feeding on Rice

Summary

This study presents a simple and feasible method to assess the nonpreference resistance to white-backed planthoppers who are feeding on rice under laboratory conditions. Improvement of the strategies and makeup of the current method of identification of the resistance to white-backed and brown planthoppers are discussed.

Abstract

Exploiting insect-resistant rice germplasm resources and related genes is the primary need for breeding insect-resistant varieties, but the accuracy of the identification of insect-resistant phenotypes of rice is a major difficulty. It is urgent to develop a new method or improve existing methods to screen rice for insect resistance. This article describes a simple and feasible method to assess nonpreference-type resistance of rice to the white-backed planthopper (WBPH), Sogatella furcifera, in the laboratory. The preference of adult WBPHs feeding or inhabiting on maturing rice plants is continuously analyzed by pairwise comparison. The dynamic changes of WBPHs on rice plants are recorded and compared as an index of resistance identification. The current method is simply operable and easily observable and has a short cycle. The use of this method could be extended to investigate the feeding and oviposition preference of similar hemipterans, such as the brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens(Stål).

Introduction

Rice is a staple food for over one-third of the world's population, and more than 90% of rice is produced and consumed in Asia^1,2. The WBPH and BPH are the most destructive pests of rice and a substantial threat to rice production³. From the perspective of cost and environment, the breeding and application of insect-resistant rice is the most effective approach to control the damage caused by planthoppers^4,5,6. Accordingly, the screening of resistant rice germplasm resources is a key prereq....

Protocol

1. Preparation of planthoppers, rice plants, and the polyvinyl chloride cage

1. Planthoppers
   1. Rear WBPHs on tillers of a susceptible rice variety called Taichung Native 1 (TN1) in insect-proof cages and let them reproduce naturally for generations. Choose long-winged, newly emerged female adults for further experiments.
      NOTE: WBPHs were provided by the Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
2. Rice pl.......

Discussion

Maturing rice plants release volatile secondary metabolites to control insect pests or reduce the mating capacity of these pests (such as in WBPHs) via a special physical structure on the leaf sheath surface, which is a key resistance mechanism¹³. In rice plants, the nonpreference is not only related to feeding but also associated with habitat and mating. However, current studies have focused on the nonpreference of nymphs^4,12, and a new m.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
climate-controlled room	Ningbo Jiangnan Instrument Factory	SZJYS2013	temperature, relative humidity, photoperiod control
glass tube with sponge stopper	/	/	diameter 2 cm and height 15 cm
handmade suction trap	/	/	/
insect-proof cage	/	/	200-mesh, (L × W × H, 75 × 75 × 75 cm)
Nylon net	/	/	200 mesh
paddy soil	/	/	/
plastic seed box	/	/	(L × W × H, 20 × 15 × 10 cm)
plastic seed pot	/	/	10-cm-diameter
plastic tray	/	/	(D × H, 28  × 10 cm)
rice seed of FY01 line	/	/	60 seeds
rice seed of HZ06 line	/	/	30 seeds
rice seed of HZ08 line	/	/	30 seeds
rice seed of TN1 variety	/	/	many
Rubber band	/	/	diameter is 1.5 mm, and the circumference is 32 cm
scotch tape	/	/	/
SPSS Statistics 19.0	IBM Corporation	/	statistical data analysis
stapler	/	/	/
transparent PVC	/	/	120 cm × 90 cm dimensions and thickness of 0.5 mm