Marker- assisted backcross breeding to introgress bruchid [Callosobruchus maculatus (F.)] and mungbean yellow mosaic virus (MYMV) disease resistance in blackgram [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper] variety MDU 1

Marker-assisted backcross (MABC) breeding technique was employed to introgress the Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) regions for the bruchid resistance and Mungbean Yellow Mosaic Virus (MYMV) disease resistance from resistant donor TU 68 into the popular blackgram variety MDU 1. Bruchid pest and MYMV disease is the major pest and disease of blackgram that renders the crop growth and yield under severe epiphytotic conditions. Foreground selection was performed using six markers namely, CEDG 020, CEDG 067 in LG 5, CEDG 302, GMES 1248 in LG 8 and CEDG 180, CEDG 116 in LG 10 linked with bruchid pest and MYMV disease resistance. In addition, 40 Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers found polymorphic among the MDU 1 x TU 68 population were used in background selection. Among the background introgressed lines (BILs), recurrent parent genome recovery ranged from 64.8 to 72.4%. Among these introgressed lines viz., BIL-95-5, BIL-95-3, BIL-95-1, BIL-135-5, BIL-33-2, BIL-20-3, BIL-20-1, BIL-135-2, and BIL-95-2 showed superior yield performance than the recurrent parent MDU 1. All the introgression lines exhibited significant resistance to bruchid and MYMV disease. Hence, these lines can be further advanced to large-scale trials to evaluate yield parameters, bruchid resistance, and MYMV disease resistance to release as a new improved variety.