Contrasting Response Mechanisms of Maize Lines to Striga hermonthica

Nnanna N. Unachukwu, Abebe Menkir, Adekemi Stanley, Ebenezer O. Farombi and Melaku Gedil
Additional contact information
Nnanna N. Unachukwu: Bioscience Center, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, PMB 5320, Oyo Road, Ibadan 200001, Nigeria
Abebe Menkir: Maize Improvement Program, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, PMB 5320, Oyo Road, Ibadan 200001, Nigeria
Adekemi Stanley: Maize Improvement Program, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, PMB 5320, Oyo Road, Ibadan 200001, Nigeria
Ebenezer O. Farombi: Department of Biochemistry, University of Ibadan, Ibadan 200284, Nigeria
Melaku Gedil: Bioscience Center, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, PMB 5320, Oyo Road, Ibadan 200001, Nigeria

Agriculture, 2020, vol. 10, issue 10, 1-18

Abstract: Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth is a parasitic weed that devastates cereals in Sub-Saharan Africa. Several control measures have been proposed for the parasite, of these, host plant resistance is considered the most cost-effective for poor farmers. Some tolerant/resistant lines have been developed and these lines display tolerance/resistance mechanisms to the parasite. A series of studies was done to investigate some of the mechanisms through which a resistant (TZISTR1108) and a susceptible (5057) maize line responds to S. hermonthica infestation, as well as the effects of parasitism on these lines. In this study, TZISTR1108 stimulated the germination and attachment of fewer S. hermonthica plants than 5057, both in the laboratory and on the field. In TZISTR1108, the growth of the S. hermonthica plants, that successfully attached, was slowed. When compared to the un-infested plants, the infested resistant plants showed fewer effects of parasitism than the infested susceptible plants. The infested TZISTR1108 plants were more vigorous, taller and resembled their un-infected counterparts. There were substantial reductions in the stomatal conductance and nitrogen content of the 5057 upon infestation. The resistant inbred line showed multiple mechanisms of resistance to S. hermonthica infestation. It thrives better than the susceptible line by reducing the attachment of S. hermonthica and it delays the parasite’s development.

Keywords: maize lines; germination stimulant; mechanism; responses; Striga hermonthica resistance and susceptibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/10/485/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/10/485/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:10:y:2020:i:10:p:485-:d:431785

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().