Mungbean Genetic Resources and Utilization

Abstract

Mungbean also known as green gram is an important food legume crop. It is the most widely grown crop among five cultivated Asiatic Vignas, viz. mungbean, urdbean, mothbean, adzukibean, and ricebean. The crop is expanding to non-traditional growing areas mainly due to its short duration of life cycle, high nutritional value, low input requirement, soil ameliorating properties, and high global demand. The crop fits well in cereal crop-based cropping systems in warm humid regions of South, East, and Southeast Asia. Mungbean cultivation covers over six million ha of land worldwide with annual production of around three million tons of grains. Narrow genetic base, disease pest proneness, and photo–thermo-sensitivity are the major problems resulting in the poor yield of the crop. The utilization of very few parental genotypes in mungbean breeding programs has led to the narrowed genetic base of the mungbean varieties. This has posed a serious threat to the mungbean cultivation amid newly emerging pests and pathogens of the crop. Worldwide over 43,000 mungbean germplasm are conserved ex situ which are playing crucial role in enhancing yield as well as resilience to the crop against biotic and abiotic stresses. Recent evaluation and characterization of ex situ collections of mungbean germplasm revealed substantial amount of useful variability in mungbean. Transboundary movement of germplasm has also helped in the development and release of varieties in several countries. Enhanced and efficient utilization of ex situ conserved mungbean and related wild species germplasm in breeding programs with the help of modern genomics tools would help in the development of desired genotypes with higher yield potential. In this chapter, we have discussed the collection, conservation, and utilization of mungbean and wild Vigna species germplasm.