Breeding Progress and Future Challenges: Biotic Stresses

Mungbean is a short-duration legume crop cultivated in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Australasia. Its cultivation is rapidly spreading to other parts of the world. Insect pests and diseases are the major constraints in increasing the productivity of mungbean crop. The important diseases in mungbean include mungbean yellow mosaic, anthracnose, powdery mildew, Cercospora leaf spot, dry root rot, halo blight, bacterial leaf spot and tan spot. The major insect-pests of mungbean are stem fly, thrips, aphids, whitefly, pod borers and bruchids. Development of host plant resistance to insect pests and diseases in mungbean by breeding for resistance is an alternative, economical and environment-friendly approach. Though breeding for resistance to insect pests and diseases has been extensively studied in mungbean, the success rate in stabilizing the resistance has been less due to the development of insect biotypes, new strains in pathogens and the environmental interactions. This chapter covers the insect and disease resistance sources in mungbean, resistant traits, the genetic basis of resistance and different breeding methods involved in breeding for insect and disease resistance