IAS-CSIC,Apdo correos 4084,Alameda Obispo S/N,14080 Cordoba,SpainMini-biographyDiego Rubiales is professor at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, CSCI, Córdoba, Spain. His research focuses on breeding for disease resistance in legumes and cereals. He published 106 SCI articles on the subject, 46 of which on cereals and 57 on legumes, and he contributed to 34 book chapters. Diego is a member of the Executive Committee of AEP (European Association for Grain Legume Research), member of Executive Committee of IPPS (International Parasitic Plant Society, and associate editor of “Grain Legumes” magazine, Euphytica journal and Newsletter Haustorium.
Search for sources of disease resistance in grain legumesDiego Rubiales
Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, CSIC, Cordoba, Spain.
ge2ruozd@uco.esBreeding for disease resistance is generally agreed to be an important and successful part of preventing and controlling diseases, and it is relatively inexpensive, biologically safe and convenient for the farmer. Incorporation of resistance to biotic stresses has a high priority in order to stabilise yields and improve quality, factors that might promote more widespread use of grain legumes in farming systems.
Until very recently, most of world grain legume production was produced from plantings of indigenous land races. Improved cultivars, usually selected for yield and quality, may not possess the combined resistances already present in the landrace that they are intended to replace. Fortunately, germplasm collections being preserved in genebanks, can provide breeders with genetic variation not found in available cultivars or enhanced germplasm.
Development of improved cultivars with resistance to a single pathogen is often straight forward if a good source of resistance is available and an efficient, easily controlled and practical screening procedure exists to provide good selection pressure. A good screening method, which unfortunately is not always available, should identify the resistance clearly and be relatively cheap and easy to carry out. The recommended method of inoculation and scoring will depend on the disease and the crop, and the objectives of screening. Despite some difficulties, a significant level of success has been achieved in identifying sources of resistance in germplasm collections. Both the methods and the sources of resistance against major diseases of pea, chickpea, grass pea, faba bean and lentil will be presented and discussed.
