Study of Soybean Germplasms on Biochemical Basis of Resistance against Spodoptera litura (Fabricius)

Background: Soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr. is an important kharif crop and affected by a number of insect pests which directly or indirectly reduces the yield. To increase the yield, the infestation by insect pest should be managed. Spodoptera litura is considered as one of the major pests of soybean crop and damages soybean to a very extent. Cultivation of insect resistant soybean can be the best technique for pest management program. Methods: No choice experiment test was carried out to calculate the mean leaf area consumption of Spodoptera litura and the biochemical analysis is carried out for phenols, flavonoids and tannins. The correlation was studied between the mean leaf area consumption and the contents of phenols, flavonoids and tannins. Result: The biochemical compounds show negative correlation with the mean leaf area consumption of S. litura in different soybean germplasms. The data shows that germplasms like DLSb1, PS 26 and JS 22-16 have high phenols, flavonoids and tannins which in turn shows high resistant against S. litura.