High Yielding vs. Low Yielding Testers to Identify Advanced Breeding Lines for General Combining Ability in Dolichos Bean (<i>Lablab purpureus</i>)

<p>Plant breeders are often confronted with the task of selecting suitable parents for making crosses to maximize the probability of isolating desirable pure-lines in predominantly self-fertilizing species, such as dolichos bean. General combining ability (GCA) is one of the widely accepted measures for choosing parents for crosses. However, the choice of suitable testers to discriminate among breeding lines for GCA has been a debatable issue in crop breeding. Comparative ability of high yielding testers (HYT) and low yielding testers (LYT) to discriminate among advanced breeding lines for GCA in dolichos bean was investigated using two criteria: (1) range of GCA and (2) contribution of lines towards total variance of test-cross progenies. The range of estimated GCA effects of lines was wider when tested against LYT than when tested against HYT. The greater contribution of lines to the variance of crosses derived from LYT than those derived from HYT suggested better ability of LYT than HYT to discriminate among lines for GCA. Based on GCA effects, significant differences existed in the ability of HYT and LYT to discriminate among lines for their GCA effects and favored the use of LYT for studies designed to evaluate the breeding lines for their GCA effects in dolichos bean.</p

Recent developments in Lablab purpureus genomics: A focus on drought stress tolerance and use of genomic resources to develop stress-resilient varieties

This research article published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2021Drought is a major climatic challenge that contributes significantly to the decline of food productivity. One of the strategies to overcome this challenge is the use of drought-tolerant crops with a wide range of benefits. Lablab is a leguminous crop that has been showing high promise to drought tolerance. It is reported to have higher drought resilience compared with the commonly cultivated legumes such as common beans and cowpeas. Because of its great genetic diversity, Lablab can withstand high temperature and low rainfall, unlike other related crops. On top of that, it is grown for multitudes of purposes including food, forages, conservation agriculture, and improved soil fertility. To enhance its production and benefits during the present effects of climate change, it is crucial to develop improved varieties that would overcome the challenge of drought stress. In the past years, there have been several reviews on Lablab based on origin, domestication, characterization, utilization, germplasm conservation, some cultivation constraints, and conventional breeding with limitations on the genomic exploitation of the crop for drought tolerance. Conventional breeding is the major breeding technique for many Lablab cultivars. The integration of genomic, physiological, biochemical, and molecular approaches would be required to develop drought-tolerant cultivars of Lablab. In this review, we discuss recent developments in Lablab genomics with a focus on drought stress tolerance and the use of genomic resources to develop stress-resilient varieties