The most important outcome of this regional research project will be the development of field crop genotypes and cultivars with the critical resistance necessary to manage plant-parasitic nematodes in the southern United States in the 21st century. The success of the previous Southern Regional Project S-253, especially in varietal development, is the basis on which this Revised Project is founded. Through classical breeding strategies and the use of biotechnology in marker-assisted selection, new genotypes, breeding lines, and cultivars of cotton, vegetables, peanut and soybean will be developed with durable, multiple resistance to the major nematode pathogens in the region. Some of the new crop genotypes will have resistance based on multiple mechanisms of resistance (pyramiding resistance genes) or novel mechanisms produced through biotechnology. In addition, new breeding lines with these characteristics will be released for use as parents in breeding programs to develop new cultivars. These new cultivars with multiple resistance genes will be critical for southern agriculture, enabling effective, economic nematode management that is environmentally sound. Where resistance genes currently are not available for certain nematode species, e. g. H. columbus, tolerant cotton and soybean cultivars will be developed to reduce the economic impact of this nematode on these crops. Careful integration of nematode-resistant cultivars into cropping systems that include cover crops, green manure crops, and nonhost crops will result in effective, durable deployment strategies for the resistance genes. Knowledge of the effects of cultural management options on biological control organisms will be gained and used to deploy these new management tools. Similarly, cultural control options will become more effective and have more appeal to growers as knowledge of the impact of alternative crops on soil suppressiveness to nematodes and diseases becomes known. Crops will be selected that are not only antagonistic or otherwise unsuitable as nematode hosts but which will also enhance nematode suppressiveness due to changes in soil and rhizosphere microbial organisms. Knowledge of how resistant cultivars and biocontrol agents should be integrated into cropping systems is vital for the most effective and long-lasting use of these management tactics.
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