Affiliations 

  • 1 Entomological Research Institute, Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad, Pakistan
  • 2 Arid Zone Research Institute, Bhakkar, Pakistan
  • 3 Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan
  • 4 Department of Agricultural Engineering, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, RYK, Punjab, Pakistan
  • 5 Department of Entomology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan
  • 6 Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Land Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 7 Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, Guizhou University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China
  • 8 Department of Physiology, College of Medicine and King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 9 Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 10 Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
  • 11 Department of Botany, Hindu College Moradabad (Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Rohilkhand University Bareilly), Bareilly, India
PLoS One, 2021;16(10):e0257952.
PMID: 34644343 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257952

Abstract

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production is significantly altered by the infestation of sucking insects, particularly aphids. Chemical sprays are not recommended for the management of aphids as wheat grains are consumed soon after crop harvests. Therefore, determining the susceptibility of different wheat genotypes and selecting the most tolerant genotype could significantly lower aphid infestation. This study evaluated the susceptibility of six different wheat genotypes ('Sehar-2006', 'Shafaq-2006', 'Faisalabad-2008', 'Lasani-2008', 'Millat-2011' and 'Punjab-2011') to three aphid species (Rhopalosiphum padi Linnaeus, Schizaphis graminum Rondani, Sitobion avenae Fabricius) at various growth stages. Seed dressing with insecticides and plant extracts were also evaluated for their efficacy to reduce the incidence of these aphid species. Afterwards, an economic analysis was performed to compute cost-benefit ratio and assess the economic feasibility for the use of insecticides and plant extracts. Aphids' infestation was recorded from the seedling stage and their population gradually increased as growth progressed towards tillering, stem elongation, heading, dough and ripening stages. The most susceptible growth stage was heading with 21.89 aphids/tiller followed by stem elongation (14.89 aphids/tiller) and dough stage (13.56 aphids/tiller). The genotype 'Punjab-2011' recorded the lower aphid infestation than 'Faisalabad-2008', 'Sehar-2006', 'Lasani-2008' and 'Shafaq-2006'. Rhopalosiphum padi appeared during mid-February, whereas S. graminum and S. avenae appeared during first week of March. Significant differences were recorded for losses in number of grains/spike and 1000-grain weight among tested wheat genotypes. The aphid population had non-significant correlation with yield-related traits. Hicap proved the most effective for the management of aphid species followed by Hombre and Husk among tested seed dressers, while Citrullus colocynthis L. and Moringa oleifera Lam. plant extracts exhibited the highest efficacy among different plant extracts used in the study. Economic analysis depicted that use of Hombre and Hicap resulted in the highest income and benefit cost ratio. Therefore, use of genotype Punjab-2011' and seed dressing with Hombre and Hicap can be successfully used to lower aphid infestation and get higher economic returns for wheat crop.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.