Sensibilidad de cultivares irradiados de Gladiolo (Gladiolus communis L.) a Thrips simplex

Abstract

Gladiolus is the main ornamental cut flower produced in Mexico, and it is the ornamental crop with the most consistent demand year-round. In addition, it requires a large amount of labor. Given the economic and social importance of this crop, in the producing regions of the State of Mexico, it is important to address the diversity of phytosanitary problems that limit its production. Thrips simplex is the main insect pest that affects the crop and can lead to decreased commercial production, increased production costs, and reduced flower quality. One of the main control strategies is genetic resistance, expressed as the preference or non-preference of an insect for a particular plant cultivar or species. In a previous study, corms irradiated at the National Institute of Nuclear Research (Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares, ININ) were planted in a greenhouse located at the Agricultural Sciences Faculty of the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (Facultad de Ciencia Agrícolas, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México) which generated radiosensitive plants with agriculturally desirable characteristics, but whose behavior when exposed to thrips was unknown. In this study, we evaluated the preference or lack of preference of the insect to different selected cultivars in order to determine their resistance to Thrips simplex. Under experimental field conditions at the Agricultural Sciences Faculty, we evaluated six plants generated by exposure to each of 10 radiation doses of the blanca borrega variety and three doses of the roja variety. We evaluated thrip density present on the plants of each dose using yellow traps placed in triplicate. The data obtained allowed us to estimate the area under the curve of the insect population for each dose, as well as the level of damage to the plants at each dose. The results indicated that the plants that received a dose of 90 Gy presented the lowest insect population at each of the different sampling dates, as well as the lowest area under the curve of the Thrips simplex population, followed by the 20 and 30 Gy doses. The highest population density occurred on the non-irradiated control and plants irradiated at 70 Gy. Similarly, the most insect damage occurred in control plants and plants irradiated at doses of 10 and 40 Gy. The plants with the least damage from thrips were those that received a dose of 90 Gy.