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Student 10-Minute Paper

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

Student Competition

Student

Grad Competition P-IE: Host-Plant Resistance 1

Differential effects of BMR and seed treatments in sorghum on fall army worm growth and development

Monday, November 6, 2023
8:36 AM – 8:48 AM ET
Location: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, National Harbor 7
In-Person Student Competition
Insect herbivory in agroecosystems has driven the development of integrated pest management strategies that reduce pests to keep them under economic thresholds. Seed treatments are amongst the most widely used chemical forms of pest management because of their relatively inexpensive treatment and application methods. While seed treatments have shown broad spectrum resistance to herbivores, they are found to have differential effects based on target pests and the genetic background of the cultivars. In grains and millets, Brown Mid Rib (BMR) is a trait with implications for plant defense against insect herbivores. BMR plants have lower amounts of lignin, which produces a less fibrous, more digestible crop, but have been found to be susceptible to herbivores. Using Spodoptera frugiperda, fall army worm (FAW), a polyphagous pest capable of feeding on a wide range of economically important crops, we tested whether in sorghum, Sorghum bicolor, BMR x Seed treatment interactions affected FAW growth, development, and plant defense response. Our preliminary results show that seed treatment did not impact the growth and development in FAW based on their larval mass gain, pupal, and adult mass regardless of BMR or cultivars. However, FAW mass gain was higher on sorghum cultivars containing BMR compared to non-BMR, although when FAW eclosed as adults, the ones which had fed on non-BMR cultivars were heavier. Collectively, our results show that BMR differentially affects life stages of FAW and has implications for IPM strategies and should be explored further.