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| Mungbean flowers at UQ Gatton. Photo Credit: Megan Pope |
New breeding opportunities for an important cash crop have been unlocked by University of Queensland and Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC)-supported research.
Queensland Alliance of Agriculture and Food Innovation PhD candidate Caitlin Dudley, supported by a GRDC Research Scholarship, has revealed key insights about mungbean flowering through extensive field trials.
“Our research found that when mungbean flowers, and how long they flowers, are independent traits with distinct genetic controls,” Ms Dudley said.
“That’s important to know because it opens opportunities for breeders to optimize flowering time to improve yield for specific growing environments.
"Think of it like having two separate dials instead of one.
“We can now potentially adjust flowering time to avoid heat or drought stress without affecting how long the plant flowers."
The discovery addresses a major challenge for mungbean production.
Currently, Australian farmers achieve yields of 0.5-1.5 tons per hectare, with the industry targeting 2 tons per hectare.
"Mungbean's unpredictable flowering makes it vulnerable to stress and complicates mechanical harvesting, increasing risk to growers," Ms. Dudley said.
"Understanding the controls of flowering opens opportunities for targeted breeding to increase yield reliability across different growing environments."
The research team screened more than 2,000 diverse mungbean lines across 4 field trials in Queensland, revealing substantial genetic variation for both traits.
Ms. Dudley's supervisor, Dr Millicent Smith said the findings have significant implications for crop improvement.
"This is the first time anyone has demonstrated that these flowering traits operate independently in mungbean," Dr Smith said.
"Our work provides breeders with future targets as we've identified 8 genetic regions controlling flowering time and 1 controlling flowering duration, with no overlap between them.
"This means we are now a step closer to further varieties that flower at optimal times for specific regions while independently controlling how synchronized that flowering is as we get closer to harvest."
The UQ research has global significance beyond Australia's mechanized farming systems.
“We collaborate with the International Mungbean Improvement Network, so we hope this work can help create more reliable crops for smallholder farmers in Asia and Africa where mungbean is harvested by hand,” Ms. Dudley said.
The project represents years of dedicated fieldwork and data collection by a large team across variable Queensland growing seasons.
“That eureka moment is much more rewarding when you are working as a team and it’s exciting to realize the importance and impact these results could have,” Ms. Dudley said.
Dr Smith said the research is opening new avenues for improving mungbean adaptation to climate variability.
"Looking ahead, we can extend this work to understand how these genetic controls interact with temperature and water availability," she said.
"We're also exploring what's unique about mungbean by comparing it to closely related species and other legumes like soybean."
Published in journal: Journal of Experimental Botany
Authors: Caitlin Dudley, Shanice Van Haeften, Samir Alahmad, Eric Dinglasan, Lee T Hickey, Hannah Robinson, Christine A Beveridge, Michael Udvardi, Thomas Noble, Karen Massel, Elizabeth A Dun, and Millicent R Smith
Source/Credit: University of Queensland
Reference Number: bio112525_01