Improved Tolerance for Onion Thrips and Iris Yellow Spot in Onion Plant Introductions after Two Selection Cycles

Iris yellow spot (IYS), a disease caused by Iris yellow spot virus (IYSV) and spread by onion thrips, is a devastating disease of onion bulb and seed production. The development of onion germplasm resistant to IYS and/or thrips is crucial to onion production, since host plant resistance is unknown for both pests. During the summer of 2010 and 2012, plants with fewer IYS disease symptoms were selected from a screening of plant introduction accessions (PIs) and first-generation selections, respectively. The resulting progeny from these selected plants were evaluated during the summers of 2013 and 2014 for thrips numbers and IYS symptom expression, and compared with their respective original PIs and a susceptible check, ‘Rumba’. The field experiment was designed such that every plant in the field screening had an equal chance of being infected with IYSV. This study shows that variation for thrips and IYS existed among PIs and first- and second-generation selections. Even though not enough progress towards minimizing IYS severity was evident from this study, we did identify several lines with improved tolerance to onion thrips in first- and second-generation selections. The majority of the selected lines exhibited lower thrips and IYS severity compared to ‘Rumba’, which suggests that the progress towards developing insect- and ultimately disease-resistant germplasm can be achieved. View Full-Tex