A
new peanut variety developed by ARS is the first with resistance to both root
knot nematodes and tomato spotted wilt virus. Photo courtesy
USDA. |
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New Peanut Variety Resistant to Nematodes,
Virus
By Sharon
Durham May 15, 2008
A new peanut variety developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists may help farmers in their
battle against two key peanut problems.
Peanuts are a very popular commodity, with annual U.S. production well
above 2 billion pounds. But peanut varieties are plagued by pests like the
peanut root-knot nematode and diseases like tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV).
While certain peanut varieties exhibit resistance to either the
microscopic worms or the TSWV pathogen, Tifguard is the first variety that has
resistance to both. It is the product of research by plant geneticist
C.
Corley Holbrook in the ARS
Crop
Genetics and Breeding Research Unit at Tifton, Ga.; plant pathologist
Patricia
Timper in the ARS
Crop
Protection and Management Research Unit, also at Tifton; and
University of Georgia collaborators Albert
Culbreath and Craig K. Kvien, in the College
of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.
Tifguard was developed by hybridizing a TSWV-resistant cultivar with a
nematode-resistant cultivar. Field tests for resistance to peanut root-knot
nematode were conducted at two Georgia farms in Tift County that were heavily
infested. In testing for TSWV-resistance, Tifguard plants were grown in plots
at one of the Tift County farms that also displayed severe TSWV problems.
Not only did Tifguard exhibit higher resistance to TSWV, it also
produced higher yields than standard check cultivars when grown in fields with
little or no nematode pressure. And because of its high level of resistance to
both TSWV and root knot nematode, Tifguard had significantly higher yields than
all other varieties when grown in two locations with high pressure from both
pathogens.
For these reasons, Tifguard should be particularly valuable to peanut
growers who have to deal with both root-knot nematodes and TSWV. It was
released in 2007 and is currently in seed production. Seed for farmers should
be available by the 2009 planting season.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.