Mixing barley cultivars affects aphid host plant acceptance in field experiments

Abstract

Four barley varieties with no significant difference in aphid acceptance were sown in pure stands and in pairwise combinations with varieties side by side in separate rows. Settling tests were done in situ in the field plots with apterae of Rhopalosiphum padi (L.) (Homoptera:Aphididae) and showed that aphid acceptance was changed in some combinations of cultivars. In a laboratory test, in which plants of one cultivar were exposed to air from the other cultivars, aphid acceptance was significantly reduced in three of the four cultivars when treated with air from certain other cultivars. Two of these three cultivars showed the same reduction under field conditions. This supports the hypothesis that plant/plant communicationmay release responses in neighbouring plants that change aphid host plant acceptance. The results also show that this mechanism is not restricted to optimal growing conditions in the laboratory, although it may be modified under field conditions depending on plant genotype.

Keywords

allelopathy; aphids; mixing barley cultivars; plant/plant communication; Rhopalosiphum padi

Published in

Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata
2002, Volume: 102, number: 2, pages: 177-182

SLU Authors

• Ninkovic, Velemir

  • Department of Entomology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Olsson, Ulf

  • Department of Biometry and Informatics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Pettersson, Jan

  • Department of Entomology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

Future Agriculture (until Jan 2017)


UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Science
Ecology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1570-7458.2002.00937.x

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/74949