Resistance to the South American tomato pinworm Tuta absoluta in high acylsugar and/or high zingiberene tomato genotypes Wilson Roberto Maluf • Vanisse de Fa ´tima Silva • Maria das Grac ¸as Cardoso • Luiz Antonio Augusto Gomes • A ´ lvaro Carlos Gonc ¸alves Neto • Gabriel Mascarenhas Maciel • Daniela Aparecida Castro Nı ´zio Received: 3 May 2010 / Accepted: 22 July 2010 / Published online: 15 August 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract Zingiberene (ZGB) and acylsugars (AS) are allelochemicals responsible for high levels of arthropod resistance found in Solanum habrochaites (= Lycopersicon hirsutum) var. hirsutum ‘PI 127826’ and S. (= L.) pennelli ‘LA 716’, respectively. These accessions were used to develop commercial lines with good levels of pest resistance. The objective of the present work was to assess the ZGB and AS contents and the levels of resistance to Tuta absoluta in tomato hybrids between high ZGB 9 high AS lines, as compared with their parental lines and with commercial checks. High AS homozygous lines [TOM-688 and TOM-689, both originated from the interspecific cross S. lycopersicum (= L. esculen- tum) 9 S. pennelli], high ZGB homozygous lines (ZGB-703 and ZGB-704, both derived from the interspecific cross S. lycopersicum 9 S. habrochaites var. hirsutum), double heterozygotes for both ZGB and AS, single heterozygotes for ZGB, and single heterozygotes for AS were assessed for AS and ZGB contents. Low-ZGB low-AS checks ‘De ´bora Max’ and ‘TOM-684’ were used, as well as checks with high ZGB (PI 127826) and high AS (LA 716). The genotypes were submitted to infestation with South American tomato pinworm adults in a screenhouse, and oviposition counts were taken 10 days after the initial infestation date. Plants were scored for overall plant damage and percent leaflets attacked up to the 38th day after infestation. Genotypes heterozygous for ZGB or AS showed allelochemical contents intermediate to those of their high and low content parents, indicating incompletely dominant gene action for contents of each of the allelochemicals. There were no significant differences in T. absoluta oviposition between high-AS homozygous geno- types, high-ZGB homozygotes, single heterozygotes for AS, single heterozygotes for ZGB and double heterozygotes for ZGB and AS, but all these geno- types showed egg counts significantly lower than the low-ZGB low-AS checks. Feeding damage of T. absoluta was higher in the low-ZGB low-AS checks than in any other ZGB-rich or AS-rich tomato genotype. Relative to ZGB or AS single heterozy- gotes, the heterozygotes for both ZGB and AS showed higher levels of resistance to the insect, as measured by overall plant damage, indicating a synergic effect of the allelochemicals on resistance. Keywords Sugar ester Á Acylsugar Á Sesquiterpene Á Zingiberene Á Allelochemical Á Insect resistance Á Lycopersicon esculentum Á Solanum lycopersicum Á South American tomato pinworm W. R. Maluf (&) Á V. de Fa ´tima Silva Á L. A. A. Gomes Á A ´ . C. G. Neto Á G. M. Maciel Á D. A. C. Nı ´zio Departamento de Agricultura (DAG), Universidade Federal de Lavras (UFLA), P.O. Box 3037, Lavras, MG CEP 37200-000, Brazil e-mail: wrmaluf@dag.ufla.br M. das Grac ¸as Cardoso Department of Chemistry, UFLA, Lavras, MG, Brazil 123 Euphytica (2010) 176:113–123 DOI 10.1007/s10681-010-0234-8