Seven Local Commercial Wheat Cultivars Tested for Resistance against Rhopalosiphum padi L. in Pakistan

ABSTRACT Bird cherry oat aphid (Rhopalosiphum padi L.) is a serious pest of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) crop and causes significant production losses to the wheat crop in Pakistan. So far eight genes from the conventional wheat cultivars that are resistant to the attack of R. padi have been incorporated in the commercial wheat cultivars to help manage R. padi. During this study seven wheat genotypes were evaluated as antixenosis, antibiosis and tolerance. These tested genotypes were (Pir Sabaq-2004, Atta-Habib, Saleem-2000,Serin-2010, Khyber-87, Sarhad-82, and Khushal-69) in three separate experiments. Antibiosis resistance was identified to R. padi in wheat cultivar (Serin-2010), where a minimum number of R. padi progeny were produced in 11.4 days. Wheat cultivar (Atta Habib) was found significantly susceptible to R. padi as it produced higher number of progeny in only 7 days duration. The other wheat cultivars (Pirsabaq-2004,Saleem-2000, Atta-Habib, Khushal-69, Sarhad-82 and Khyber–87) also did not show any antixenosis or tolerance category of resistance to the R. padi. This study concludes, Serin-2010’ as standard resistant cultivar for future breeding program.