Maize (<i>Zea mays</i>) is an important agricultural crop plant in many parts of the world and its successful cultivation requires the ability to overcome both biotic and abiotic stresses including insect pests and diseases as well as drought, flooding and extremes of temperature. Often these stresses don’t occur in isolation and the plant is required to sense, adapt and prioritize its responses to deal with combined problems. In this study we assess the effect of the abiotic stress of flooding on the ability of maize to respond to attack by fall armyworm. We show that flooding impacts both the stress signaling responses of maize and its ability to produce endogenous chemical defenses. These changes lead to altered growth of fall armyworm on maize plants subjected to flooding stress and indicate probable changes are required to pest management strategies during periods of flooding.

Impact of flooding on the chemical defenses of maize against the insect pest fall armyworm

256th National Meeting (2018)

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