Marker-assisted backcross breeding for enhancing Mungbean Yellow Mosaic Virus (MYMV) disease resistance in blackgram [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper] cv MDU 1

Mungbean yellow mosaic virus (MYMV) disease is the major disease of blackgram that affects crop growth and yield under severe epiphytotic conditions. Marker assisted backcross (MABC) breeding was employed to introgress the MYMV disease resistance Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) regions from resistant donor Mash 1008 into the popular blackgram variety MDU 1. The MABC approach was applied to introgress two major QTL on linkage groups 2 and 10 into elite line MDU 1. All F1 were resistant to MYMV, so the resistance is dominant. After a series of two backcrosses and subsequent selfing, a total of 185 BC2F2 lines were obtained from the cross MDU1 x Mash 1008. Among them, three BC2F2 lines were identified with introgression of both QTL regions. A genome recovery of up to 63.80% was observed among these introgression lines. These introgressed lines were forwarded as single plants for further field evaluation. Finally, nine advanced backcross lines viz., BIL-4-47-1, BIL-4-47-3, BIL-4-47-4, BIL-4-47-5, BIL-4-47-7, BIL-4-47-8, BIL-4-47-9, BIL-4-47-10 and BIL-5-10-4 were found with significant superior performances over MDU1 for yield and MYMV disease resistance. These lines can be further evaluated in large scale trials to prepare their release as variety.