Scientists are making progress towards finding what makes some wheat varieties resistant to slugs – potentially offering sustainable solutions to slug control.
One area of focus for scientists involved in the SLIMERS project is identifying what makes some varieties of wheat more ‘slug resistant’ than others. Research at the John Innes Centre is based on previous studies of the Centre’s Watkins collection of landrace wheat varieties which identified Watkins 788 as potentially ‘slug resistant’.
Dr Simon Griffiths crossed Watkins 788 with other varieties to create 77 Recombinant Inbred Lines (RILs) for further testing to help identify the gene or genes responsible for slug resistance. The centre’s Head of Entomology and Insectary Platform Dr Victor Soria-Carrasco is running trials on these RILs using slugs provided by the ‘Slug Scouts’ volunteers who capture grey field slugs in their farms or gardens and post them to the centre.
Three slugs are added to each tray with a selection of pre-soaked seeds and then left for two days. Seeds are weighed before and after the trial period and also scored for levels of damage before being left for a further seven days to assess the impact of the slug damage on germination.
Trial replications revealed RILs that appear to be slug resistant, as well as those that are more susceptible. Dr Soria-Carrasco and team will continue to test RILs further in the lab to help identify the part of the plant DNA associated with slug resistance – the quantitative trait locus (QTL).
“Detecting which wheat the slugs like is as relevant as finding the varieties they don’t like, as it will all help us identify the QTLs,” says Dr Soria-Carrasco.
Meanwhile two of the RILs – one which is susceptible and one showing resistance – plus Watkins 788 have been multiplied up for on-farm testing in 2024-5.
Tom Allen-Stevens says: “Seeing how the RILs perform in the field is the crucial next stage. We have six farmers establishing blocks of Watkins 788 and the two RILs, alongside farm standard wheat this autumn. They will take measurements and samples to fully assess whether they are indeed spurned by slugs and could offer a potential solution to farmers.”
SLIMERS is a three-year £2.6m research programme involving more than 100 UK farms and seven partners. SLIMERS is funded by the Small R&D Partnership Projects, part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme which is delivered by Innovate UK. Project number: 10053286.
Visit slimers.co.uk to find out more.
Found in:
Issue #1
Will you take the #PROBITYPledge?
Root Rangers to trial ‘remarkable’ wheat
Turning witchcraft into wizardry
Reducing soya imports has ‘never been so important’
Cracking the code for ‘slug-resistant’ wheat