Long-term seasonal forecasting of a major migrant insect pest: the brown planthopper in the Lower Yangtze River Valley.

Rice planthoppers and associated virus diseases have become the most important pests threatening food security in China and other Asian countries, incurring costs of hundreds of millions of US dollars annually in rice losses, and in expensive, environmentally harmful, and often futile control efforts. The most economically damaging species, the brown planthopper, (Hemiptera: Delphacidae), cannot overwinter in temperate East Asia, and infestations there are initiated by several waves of windborne spring or summer migrants originating from tropical areas in Indochina. The interaction of these waves of migrants and synoptic weather patterns, driven by the semi-permanent western Pacific subtropical high-pressure (WPSH) system, is of critical importance in forecasting the timing and intensity of immigration events and determining the seriousness of subsequent planthopper build-up in the rice crop.

Fine mapping of qSTV11(KAS), a major QTL for rice stripe disease resistance.

Rice stripe disease, caused by rice stripe virus (RSV), is one of the most serious diseases in temperate rice-growing areas. In the present study, we performed quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis for RSV resistance using 98 backcross inbred lines derived from the cross between the highly resistant variety, Kasalath, and the highly susceptible variety, Nipponbare. Under artificial inoculation in the greenhouse, two QTLs for RSV resistance, designated qSTV7 and qSTV11(KAS), were detected on chromosomes 7 and 11 respectively, whereas only one QTL was detected in the same location of chromosome 11 under natural inoculation in the field.

[Detection and analysis of QTL for resistance to the brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål), in rice (Oryza sativa L.), using backcross inbred lines].

A mapping population of 98 BC1F9 lines (backcross inbred lines: BILs), derived from a backcross of Nipponbare (japonica)/Kasalath (indica)//Nipponbare by the single-seed descent methods, was used to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) for resistance to brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens (Stål). Seedbox Screening Technique (SST) was applied to evaluate the reactions of two parents and 98 BILs to BPH at the seedling stage, and the entries were graded on ratio of dead seedlings. A total of three QTL controlling BPH resistance were detected on chromosomes 2, 10 and 12, respectively.