Chapter 4 - Moth bean

Abstract

Moth bean [Vigna aconitifolia (Jacq.) Maréchal], a native crop of the Indian subcontinent is capable of sustaining long dry spells and high temperatures beyond 40°C. However, erratic and low rains affect its growth and production drastically often restricting the productivity much below its potential (>200Kg/ha). It is mainly grown for food and fodder but its value in crop rotation has been recognized since long. Initial genetic improvement efforts were largely determined by available diversity in the germplasm. The release of early maturing variety RMO-40 in 1994 developed interest in mutagenesis and subsequently series of a short duration varieties was developed through mutagenesis. However, hybridization program was completely ignored due to tricky handling of tiny flowers that drop on manipulation, consequently genetic studies also lack in this crop. Germplasm evaluation experiments while resulted in identification of promising genotypes also provided information on diversity, heritability and other genetic parameters along with association of traits and environmental influence. Among the pulses, moth bean has been found amenable to in vitro manipulations. Regeneration protocols from a number of explants and protoplsts are available along with transformation methods. In vitro regenerated or growing plants may be induced to flowering where stress related proline and abscicic acid were potent inducers. The tissue culture system of moth bean was used to induce mutations. Though, DNA markers have been used for diversity and phylogenetic analysis in moth bean molecular database available is limited. There have been efforts to understand molecular basis of heat and drought tolerance leading to identification of important genes. Transcriptomic, EST and SSR data bases are now available along with a molecular marker based genetic map.