A FUNCTIONAL GENOMIC APPROACH TO ANALYZE HERBIVORY RELATED TRANSCRIPTS IN TEA

Tea Mosquito Bug (Helopeltis theivora Waterhouse) is one of the most dreaded tea pests of NE India causing a loss of 15-20 lakh kgs of made tea per year. SSR markers derived from stress associated ESTs were evaluated in a segregating population showing variable resistance to Helopeltis infestation. This approach would facilitate new methods of marker assisted selection (MAS) to efficiently breed superior Helopeltis resistant varieties.