National Mungbean Improvement Program - 2016 to 2021 - Diseases

Brief description

Full description

NMIP improves yield stability of mungbean through enhanced genetic disease resistance. Elite disease resistant material is identified for four diseases principally in dedicated field inoculated nurseries. The NMIP focus is on four major diseases that impact mungbean yield. These include two bacterial diseases, Halo blight (Caused by bacterium Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. phaseolicola) and Tan spot caused by bacterium Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens pv. flaccumfaciens. Powdery mildew and fusarium wilt are also evaluated.

Halo blight nurseries are conducted at Redland Bay in Brisbane on a DAF farm with consistent high humidity and ideal conditions to develop disease symptoms. Infected seed is sown in buffer rows along with an inoculum load delivered using a powered blower to cause wound sites on plants for the inoculum to enter. Tan spot is delivered in a similar manner and traditionally was conducted in Warwick in a drier environment but not always warm enough temperatures to have symptoms expressed well. Tan spot screening recently transitioned to a glasshouse screen in 2022 using a needle to pinprick stems with a known volume of inoculum. This eliminates cross contamination with other diseases which have historically confounded field disease nurseries. Powdery mildew is a field sown nursery sown late at Warwick to promote natural infection with the use of susceptible buffer rows. A Fusarium wilt field nursery only commenced in 2021 at Warwick.