| Aim |
The group's aim is to exchange ideas, information, techniques, insects
and plant breeding material amongst those investigating and exploiting
conventional or transgenic resistance of plants to insects and mites.
This group promotes the utilisation of pest-resistant plant varieties
in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programmes as a means to increase
sustainability and environmental compatibility of agriculture and horticulture.
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| Activities |
Group meetings are held every three years for the purpose of reporting
recent research results, exchanging ideas and experimental materials,
as well as planning future collaboration between entomologists and plant
breeders / biotechnologists on insect-plant interactions.
Members of the group aim to identify sources of resistance to the major
pests of crop plants, to determine the biological, biochemical, and genetic
basis of resistance, and to exploit the resistance in IPM programmes.
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| Achievements |
The group has held several workshop meetings since its inception, with
an average of 40-45 participants from about 10 countries and with about
20-30 papers published in subsequent proceedings. The proceedings are
widely distributed and cited. The group is strongly supported by industry,
with about 10 leading seed companies sending representatives. Several
have presented industry viewpoint summaries to balance the academic research
reports. Many sources of resistance identified by members of the group
have been utilised by seed companies in their breeding programmes.
In its early history the group concentrated on the development of techniques
for identifying resistance and for new sources of resistance to important
pest species. Later, members concentrated on understanding the mechanisms
of different types of resistance (antixenosis, antibiosis, tolerance).
More recently, effort has been directed to determining genetic control
of pest resistance, selection of virulent pest biotypes, the use of genetic
engineering and marker-assisted breeding, and the tri-trophic interactions
of resistant plants, pests and their natural enemies.
The results of the working group's activities are published in journals
and bulletins:
IOBC/WPRS Bulletin Vol. 22 (10) 1999, 92 pp., table
of contents (PDF, 6 KB)
IOBC/WPRS Bulletin Vol. 27 (7) 2004, 58 pp., table of contents (PDF, 50 KB)
IOBC/WPRS Bulletin Vol. 28 (10) 2005, 137 pp., table of contents (PDF, 52 KB)
Meeting 2004, September 16-19 , Bialowieza, Poland:
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