Project Number: 6618-22000-030-02
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Aug 30, 2003
End Date: Aug 30, 2008

Objective:
The objective of this collaboration is to determine the biophysical and/or biochemical basis of resistance to whiteflies in cassava and to develop chemical and genetic markers for use in genetic improvement of cassava and other crops.

Approach:
CIAT has identified cassava gentotypes with high and stable levels of resistance to whiteflies, a major pest in tropical, subtropical, and temperate agricultural systems including a wide range of vegetable, fruit and legumes grown in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas. Such plant resistance is sufficiently rare to be of interest to breeders of horticultural crops. The objective of this collaboration is to determine the biophysical and/or biochemical basis of resistance in cassava and to develop chemical and genetic markers for use in cassava improvement and potentially in improvement of other crops. Initial work at CIAT will compare whitefly performance, feeding behavior, and feeding damage on susceptible and resistant cassava genotypes. CIAT will provide cassava germplasm to ARS for evaluation with the whitefly Bemisia tabaci biotype B at Ft. Pierce.