Aphid resistance in Brassica crops: challenges, biotechnological progress and emerging possibilities

Aphids, (Hemiptera: Aphidoidea) a nefarious insect pest of Brassicaceae members including major vegetable and oilseed crops have coevolved with their host plant and emerged as most economically important insect pest of crop Brassicas. Their atypical feeding mechanism and unusual reproductive biology made them intractable to control below economic threshold level of damage to the crops. To a large extent aphid infestation is controlled by spraying agrochemicals of systemic mode of action and rarely by biological control. Use of systemic insecticides is highly cost intensive as well poses bigger threat of their incorporation in dietary chain. Breeding for genetic resistance against aphids has not been possible owing to the non-availability of resistance source within the crossable germplasms and lack of knowledge of the genetics of the trait. Genetic engineering with insect resistant transgenes seems to be the only potential avenue to address this difficult-to-accomplish breeding objective. Some success had been achieved in terms of developing aphid resistant cultivars through genetic engineering however, commercial utilization of such crops are still awaited. Thus protection of crops against aphids necessarily requires more research to identify either more effective insecticidal transgenes or biological phenomenon that can usher to new mechanism of resistance. The present review is an attempt to highlight the current status and possible avenues to develop aphid resistance in Brassicaceae crops. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.