NEW research aims to stop a plant bacteria seasonally affecting significant percentages of our mungbean crop each year.
QUT Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities director Professor Sagadevan Mundree said halo blight disease can cost the mungbean industry millions of dollars annually with effectively no in-crop control measures available to help growers.
The research follows the Australian Mungbean Association joining forces with QUT and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF).
“The mungbean industry, now worth $180 million last season, is one of the fastest growing agricultural industries in Australia with the majority of the crop grown in Queensland,” Prof Mundree said.
“Halo blight disease is caused by the bacteria Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. phaseolicola, which causes brown water-soaked spots on leaves and pods.
“It can be particularly destructive in spring-sown crops and when it occurs before flowering or during pod development.”
“What we aim to do through innovative research is to gain a deeper understanding of how halo blight infects mungbeans and help develop mungbean varieties that are more genetically resistant to this disease.”
Prof Mundree said while research had been carried out on halo blight in relation to the common bean, research on mungbean had been limited.
The Australian Mungbean Association is co-funding a four-year PhD scholarship to help QUT and its collaborators pursue this ground-breaking research.
Professor Mundree said samples of the halo blight bacteria would be provided by DAF along with infected plants from around the nation.
“A range of new screening techniques will be developed to test resistance to the various strains of halo blight bacteria, their relationship with each other and their effects on Australian mungbean varieties,” Prof Mundree said.
“Mungbean reaction to the bacteria will be evaluated and gene for gene interactions between the bacteria and mungbeans uncovered.”
Prof Mundree said this would ultimately assist the development of mungbean varieties more resistant to halo blight.
This new research, coupled with existing drought-tolerance and other mungbean research the university was conducting, will help growers and industry better meet the unprecedented demand for our clean green mungbeans in key export markets.
