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Generation Mean Analyses of Various Allelochemics in Cottons¹

Several secondary plant metabolites are alleged to confer resistance of cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L., to various insects and mites. At the present time, only the inheritance of the sesquiterpenoid gossypol has been elucidated. This research was conducted to determine inheritance of several inferred/hypothesised allelochemics from cotton, in particular those alleged to confer resistance to the tobacco budworm, Heliothis virescens (F.).

Generation mean analysis (GMA) was used as the genetic design. The following GMA's were evaluated: ‘DES-24’ x ‘SATU-65’, DES-24 x ‘BJA-592’, and DES-24 x MOHG. The six populations (P₁, P₂, F₁, F₂, BCP₁, and BCP₂) comprising a GMA were planted as a randomized complete block with four rcplicatlons. Analyses of young cotton leaves for condensed tannins, catechln, total phenols, E_1.1, aniline reacting terpenes, and phloroglucinol reactive compounds were obtained at intervals during the growing season. Analysis of variance was conducted on seasonal means.

The inheritance of gossypol, as measured by the GHEA extract of the phloroglucinol test, was predominately additive. Gossypol, as detected by the aniline reacting terpene test, was shown to be inherited by predominately dominant gene action. The genetic analysis indicates that the GHEA and aniline reacting terpene tests are measuring gene products which are inherited in different manners. The four tests used for the determination of condensed tannins also appeared to be measuring somewhat diverse genetic products. This was apparent because E_1.1 and fresh disc assay tannins, but not tannin and catechin tannins, showed significant variation among populations in the DES-24 x SATU-65. E_1.1 and catechin tannins, but not the tannin and fresh disc assay tannins, showed significant variation among populations in the DES-24 x BJA-592 cross. When condensed tannins as measured by any of these tests were genetically analyzed in a cross, inheritance was highly additive.

The high degree of additive gene action for condensed tannins, a flavonoid-anthocyanin mixture, gossypol by the CHEA test, and total phenolics indicate that it should be possible to fix and select for increased levels of these compounds.

Key Words: Host-plant resistance • Generation mean analysis • Heliothis virescens (F.) • Gossypium hirsutum L. • Allelochemistry

² Ag. research tech. (presently research entomologist, U. S. Sugarcane Field Laboratory, Houma, LA 70360), research geneticist, research entomologist, and research agronomist respectively, Crop Sci. Res. Lab,, P. O. Box 5367, Mississippi State, MS 39762.

³ Chemist and research chemist, Boll Weevil Res. Lab., P. O. Box 5367, Mississippi State, MS 39762.

Received for publication January 5, 1982.