New Horizons in Insect Science Towards Sustainable Pest Management

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Inducing Resistance in Sesamum

Accessions Against Shoot Webber

and Capsule Borer, Antigastra

catalaunalis Duponchel Through

Mutation Breeding

M. Saravanaraman, K. Balaji and V. Selvanarayanan

A. K. Chakravarthy (ed.), New Horizons in Insect Science: Towards Sustainable Pest Management,
DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-2089-3_26, © Springer India 2015

M. Saravanaraman () · K. Balaji · V. Selvanarayanan
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture,
Annamalai University, Annamalainagar 608002 Tamil
Nadu, India
e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Sesame ( Sesamum indicum L.) is one of the ancient oil seed crops cultivat-

ed extensively in several countries of Asia and Africa. Incidence of insect

pests and diseases cause severe yield losses in sesame. Among the insect

pests, shoot webber, and capsule borer, Antigastra catalaunalis Duponchel

(Pyraustidae: Lepidoptera) is predominant throughout India. To identify

insect tolerant sesame, 140 sesame accessions were evaluated under glass-

house and field conditions for resistance against A. catalaunalis at the Fac-

ulty of Agriculture, Annamalai University during 2005–2007. Among the

140 accessions, 14 accessions were found resistant to A. catalaunalis. Based

on this earlier work and reports from other sources, in the present work,

accessions namely IVTS-2001–7(TKG-22), NIC-7875, NIC-16278, NIC-

17345, NIC-7908, KMR-102, KMR-63, KMR-56, TMV-3 and SVPRI-1

were selected for inducing mutation. These accessions were evaluated for

the LD50 with regard to the physical mutagen namely Gamma rays and

chemical mutagens namely EMS (Ethyl methane sulfonate) and DES (Di

ethyl sulfate). For gamma rays, the LD 50 was at 50 krad while EMS and

DES registered 0.06 and 0.5 % respectively as LD 50. Upon evaluating the

first mutant (M 1 ) and second mutant (M 2 ) generations under screenhouse

conditions, based on leaf, flower, and capsule damage, mutants of four ac-

cessions namely IVTS 2001-7, NIC-7875, NIC-16278, and TMV-3 were

rated resistant. To ascertain the segregation of such desirable traits in the

mutant generations, concerted field evaluation needs to be conducted till

stabilization of phenotypic variability in the offsprings.

Introduction

Sesame ( Sesamum indicum Linn.) (Pedaliaceae)

is an important oilseed crop grown in India and

is regarded as the “Queen of Oilseeds”. Sesame

Keywords

Capsule borer · Resistant · Sesame · Shoot webber