Evaluation of sowing dates for managing yellow mosaic disease caused by mungbean yellow mosaic India virus in mungbean

Yellow mosaic disease, a most important destructive disease of mungbean production caused by Mungbean yellow mosaic India virus (MYMIV) under North Indian conditions. However, management of this deadly disease is still becoming the biggest challenge due to breaking of resistance under changing climatic conditions. Hence, a field experiment was conducted at IARI, New Delhi, India during Kharif 2021 and Spring–Summer 2022 to understand the sowing date influence on incidence of MYMIV in mungbean resistant (Pusa 1371) and susceptible (Pusa 9531) cultivars. The results revealed the higher disease incidence percentage (PDI) in the first sowing (15–20th July) of Kharif and third sowing (5–10th April) of Spring–Summer season. The mean PDI ranged from 25–41% to 11.80–13.54% for resistant followed by 23.13–49.84% and 14.40–21.45% in susceptible cultivar during Kharif and Spring–Summer season respectively. The detection of MYMIV through DAC-ELISA at 405 nm showed the absorbance values of 0.40–0.60 in susceptible and < 0.45 in resistant cultivar during the Kharif and 0.40–0.45 in Spring–Summer season. The PCR analysis with MYMIV and MYMV specific primers indicated the presence of only MYMIV and absence of MYMV in the present studied mungbean cultivars. The PCR analysis with DNA-B specific primers resulted in the amplification of 850 bp from both susceptible and resistant cultivars during the first sowing of Kharif whereas amplification was observed only in susceptible cultivar with second and third sowings of Kharif and all the three sowings of Spring–Summer season. The experiment results revealed that the most suitable date of sowing for mungbean will be before 30th March during Spring–Summer and after third week of July (30th July to 10th August) during the Kharif season under Delhi conditions.