Identifying resistance to willow-carrot aphid

Contact: Lauren Chappell

With reducing chemical treatments available for controlling willow-carrot aphids and the viruses they transmit, namely the carrot red leaf virus, there is a need to find alternate control methods. One of these key methods is identifying carrot plants that display resistance to aphids and the virus. In this plot we have 80 different carrot varieties from the carrot diversity set, held by the Genetic Resource Unit. These carrot varieties include wild types as well as commercial varieties and are all different colours, shapes, sizes etc. The varieties originate from all over the world and are very genetically diverse.

We are assessing the number of aphids and the virus level in the carrot foliage and will assess yield of foliage and root upon harvest. We hope to identify a carrot variety that displays resistance to the aphid and the virus and can be used to develop a carrot variety with sustainable resistance.

This trial is funded by Defra as part of the Vegetable Genetic Improvement Network (VeGIN) project.