Abstract
Eldana saccharina is the most damaging stem borer of sugarcane in South Africa causing US$90 million losses of revenue annually. The breeding strategy at the South African Sugarcane Research Institute is based on evaluating parents for breeding values using progeny data derived from family plots and selecting parents with high breeding values for crossing. Family selection entails selecting whole populations of progenies based on family mean. The objective of this study was to evaluate the contribution of family selection to eldana resistance breeding. Data were collected from stage 1 (seedlings stage) trials. In each plot, stalks were examined for eldana entry and exit holes and stalks with borings were counted. The number of bored stalks was expressed as a percent of total stalks and subjected to analysis of variance. The family broad sense heritabilities ranged from 0.51 - 0.56 compared with 0.17 for Individual Genotype Selection (IGS). Predicted family selection gains ranged from 20% to 69% compared with 18% for IGS indicating the value of family selection. Female parental effects F-values (1.63 - 2.01) were significant (P = 0.0017 - 0.0041) compared with non-significant male F-values (1.33 - 1.41) and (P = 0.088 - 0.1464) suggesting maternal effects. Crossing parents with higher resistance such as 96M0058 × 94M0017, 87M0965 × 98G1166 and 97M0653 × 94M0017 produced significantly (P < 0.05) fewer bored stalks compared with those showing lower resistance (96H0590 × 95H0167, 94F2694 × 86F3326 and 76L1295 × 91L1492) suggesting additive genetic effects and that recurrent selection will be an effective breeding method.
Highlights
Eldana saccharina (E. saccharina) is an indigenous lepidopteran insect pest of sugarcane in Southern Africa and is naturally found in sedges along riverine vegetation [1]
Predicted family selection gains ranged from 20% to 69% compared with 18% for Individual Genotype Selection (IGS) indicating the value of family selection
The pest is managed in highly infested regions of South Africa using an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach combining chemical control, trash burning, reduced harvest age, biological control, sterile insect technology [6]-[8], push pull technology [9] [10] and the cultivation of resistant varieties [11]
Summary
Eldana saccharina (E. saccharina) is an indigenous lepidopteran insect pest of sugarcane in Southern Africa and is naturally found in sedges along riverine vegetation [1]. E. saccharina is one of the most damaging stem borers of sugarcane causing significant yield losses estimated at US$90 million in South Africa [2] [3]. Incidence of E. saccharina damage has been recorded in the Midlands [13] and irrigated regions of South Africa [14] [15]. The high altitude and generally cooler Midlands regions were traditionally known to experience no damage from E. saccharina. Previous recommendations for reducing yield losses to E. saccharina included harvesting younger crops [16] [17]. There is increasing evidence of E. saccharina damage in the irrigated and Midlands regions. High E. saccharina damage has been recorded in younger crops, indicating the need to explore higher levels of varietal resistance and methods of accelerating breeding for resistance
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