Search

The cool-season grain legume industry in Australia, comprising field pea (Pisum sativum L.), chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), faba bean (Vicia faba L.), lentil (Lens culinaris ssp. culinaris Medik.), and narrow-leaf lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.), has emerged in the last 40 years to occupy a significant place in cropping systems. The development of all major grain legume crops—including field pea, which has been grown for over 100 years—has been possible through large amounts of genetic resources acquired and utilised in breeding. Initially, several varieties were released directly from these imports, but the past 25 years of grain legume breeding has recombined traits for adaptation and yield for various growing regions. Many fungal disease threats have been addressed through resistant germplasm, with varying successes. Some threats, e.g. black spot in field pea caused by Mycosphaerella pinodes (Berk. and Blox.) Vestergr., require continued exploration of germplasm and new technology. The arrival of ascochyta blight in chickpea in Australia threatened to destroy the chickpea industry of southern Australia, but thanks to resistant germplasm, it is now on its way to recovery. Many abiotic stresses including drought, heat, salinity, and soil nutritional toxicities continue to challenge the expansion of the grain legume area, but recent research shows that genetic variation in the germplasm may offer new solutions. Just as the availability of genetic resources has been key to successfully addressing many challenges in the past two decades, so it will assist in the future, including adapting to climate change. The acquisition of grain legume germplasm from overseas is a direct result of several Australians who fostered collaborations leading to new collection missions enriching the germplasm base for posterity.

Cultivated chickpea germplasm collections contain a low frequency of ascochyta blight resistant accessions. This might lead to limitations on the future progress of chickpea breeding worldwide. In an effort to identify novel sources of resistance to ascochyta blight, 56 unique accessions, comprising 8 annual wild Cicer species, were evaluated under a controlled environment that was optimal for infection with an aggressive Australian isolate of Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Labrousse. The majority of wild Cicer accessions were either susceptible or highly susceptible to A. rabiei 21 days after inoculation; however, 11 accessions, of which 7 were Cicer judaicum, were resistant. The most resistant accession detected in this study, ATC 46934, together with accessions ATC 46892 and ATC 46935, which were resistant in this and another study, should be targeted for use in future interspecific resistance breeding programs.