Identification of whitefly resistance in tomato and hot pepper

Key words: Capsicum, Bemisia tabaci, trichome density, cuticle thickness Whitefly is economically one of the most threatening pests of pepper worldwide, which is mainly caused by its ability to transmit many different viruses. In this research, we characterized pepper germplasm to identify whitefly-resistant accessions that will form the basis for future resistance breeding. Forty-four pepper accessions representing four species (Capsicum annuum, C. frutescens, C. chinense, C. baccatum) were screened for resistance to whiteflies. Screening parameters were adult survival (AS) and oviposition rate (OR) in a no-choice test and whitefly, egg and nymphal density in free-choice tests. To combine parameters in free-choice tests, a plant resistance value was calculated. The results show that AS and OR were significantly different among accessions and were positively correlated, which was also the case for the parameters in the free-choice tests. Accessions identified as highly resistant in no-choice and free-choice tests generally were C. annuum. Whitefly density and OR correlated positively with trichome density and negatively with cuticle thickness of leaves.