Int. J. Nat. Soc. Sci., Research Report
Web Release Date: Mar.9th, 2009

Copyright © 2008-2009 International Association of Natural and Social Science

Relationships Between Resistance to Aphis gossypii Glover (Homoptera: Aphididae) and Free Amino Acid Content in Cotton

Yi Lu, Peiling Wang*, Jin Zhang, Bing Liu

Department of Plant Protection, College of Agriculture, Shihezi University, Xinjiang Shihezi 832003, China; E-mail: wangpl69@126.com

Received May 11th, 2008       Accepted Jan.23rd, 2009

Abstract:

The cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover (Homoptera: Aphididae), is one of the major destructive pests on cotton in Xinjiang, China. The population outbreaks occurred across large cotton production area in Xinjiang in 1994, 1996, 2001 and 2003. Developing resistant cotton varieties is considered to be a long-term solution to the aphid problem. The objectives of this study were to evaluate nine cotton varieties from Xinjiang for resistance to A. gossypii and to determine the relationships between their free amino acids content and resistance to A. gossypii. Results from field evaluation trials indicate that Xinhai21 is a variety showing the highest resistance to A. gossypii with the DI being 32.17 and DID 27.97%, whereas Zhongmiansuo35 and 81-3 are highly susceptible, with the DI estimated as 72.28 and 77.97 and the DID as -61.85% and -74.60%, respectively. The HPLC analysis has shown that there are significant differences in the content of free amino acids among different varieties. Xinhai21 has a greatest content of total free amino acids (32.14 mg•g-1), and Zhongmiansuo35 contains least free amino acids (23.80 mg•g-1) among the varieties tested in this study. The results of principal component analysis has also revealed that free aspartic acid, serine, glutamic acid, glycin, arginine, proline, tyrosine and methionine are the principal free amino acids that account for significant varietal differences in total free amino acids. Furthermore, the DI of a variety was negatively correlated with the content of free glutamic acid while positively correlated with that of free proline and arginine, respectively.

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