Volume 9, Issue 20, January - December 2023

Exploring morphological indicators of BPH resistance in rice varieties

Viruthiga Senthurselvan¹, Sarvananda Letchuman^2♦

¹Dept. of Agricultural Biology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
²Molecular Nutritional and Biochemistry Laboratory, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

^♦Corresponding author
Molecular Nutritional and Biochemistry Laboratory, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

Rice is one of the widely grown cereal crops in tropical areas which acts as a host to many insects. Brown Plant Hopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens, is one of the most serious insect pests of paddy demanding intensive population management. Breeding rice for host plant resistance is a durable and cost-effective means of controlling BPH. However, phenotypic screening of rice plants for BPH resistance is a time-consuming tedious job. Thus, this study was conducted to identify the possible correlations present between the morphological characteristics of rice plants and resistance level to BPH. The examined morphological characters include leaf angle, leaf color, plant height, number of tillers, number of leaves, and sheath color. Twelve different rice varieties which include five moderately resistant rice varieties, five moderately susceptible rice varieties, a resistant check, and a susceptible check were used in this study. The rice varieties were grown in pots in Jaffna with six replicates for each variety. Morphological characters were measured 30 days after planting. Data was subjected to a normality test and oneway ANOVA followed by Tukey’s pairwise comparison test and Chi-square test. The results showed that, out of the different morphological parameters tested, only the amount of red and green colors present in leaves showed significant differences between the groups of susceptible and moderately resistant rice varieties (P < 0.05). The highest mean red values and green values of the leaf was shown by the susceptible check variety (Bg-380) and the lowest red and green value were shown by moderately resistant rice varieties (Bg-369, Bg-357, Bg-300, At-311, and H-10). However, in the Chi-square test for association, no significant correlation was observed between the amount of red and green colors present in leaves and the BPH resistance levels.

Keywords: Brown Plant Hopper, Morphological parameters, Rice, Host-plant resistance

Discovery Agriculture, 2023, 9, e3da1535

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi.v9i20.e3da1535

Published: 01 December 2023