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Striga free maize: Introducing Tripsacum-based
resistance via an integrated approach
S.J.
Hearne, A.L. Gurney J.P. Brizard, C. Brugidou, F.
Kanampiu, P.O. Mbogo, M.C. Press, J.D. Scholes & D. Hoisington
Tetraploid Tripsacum
dactyloides (L.) exhibits
resistance and tolerance to Striga
under field and laboratory conditions.
The development of Striga is
impaired soon after attachment. This
perturbation of Striga
development has been observed in crosses between maize and tetraploid Tripsacum indicating that the trait may be transmittable.
To assess the potential for trait transmission via wide crosses,
a large number of maize-Tripsacum hybrids with differing chromosome numbers were screened in
glasshouse experiments in western Kenya.
Those plants with 15 or more Tripsacum chromosomes performed very
well under conditions of Striga infestation. A range of maize-Tripsacum addition lines are being screened in the laboratory in
order to determine whether the trait can be localised to a chromosome or
group of chromosomes of Tripsacum.
This data will help ascertain how complex the trait is and help
determine whether transmission of the trait from Tripsacum
to maize is possible via wide crossing.
In the absence of wide crossing, introduction of the trait into
maize may be possible but first we must identify those characters
responsible for the interesting phenotype.
Thus, we are using a combined approach incorporating both
proteomics and genomics in order to elucidate the basis of resistance.
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