Resistance Stability of the Secondary Tiller of \u27Caldwell\u27 Wheat After the Primary Culm Was Infested With Virulent Hessian Fly (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) Larvae
Secondary tiller resistance of \u27Caldwell\u27 wheat, Triticum aestivum, with the H6 gene for larval resistance to Hessian fly, Mayetiola destructor, was maintained, after the primary culm had been previously infested with virulent larvae. Earlier studies showed that a primary culm infested initially with a virulent larva allowed subsequent normally avirulent larvae to survive on that cultivar; however, in our study the resistance of secondary tillers was mainained even though the primary culm was infested earlier with virulent Hessian fly larvae. This gene stability for resistance is important for optimizing wheat yield of those cultivars that possess genes resistant to the Hessian fly that are tillering and infested with different biotypes