New breeding opportunities for an important cash crop have been unlocked by University of Queensland and Grains Research and Development Corporation-supported research.
Queensland Alliance of Agriculture and Food Innovation PhD candidate Caitlin Dudley, supported by a GRDC Research Scholarship (GRS) has revealed key insights about mungbean flowering through extensive field trials.
“Our research found that when mungbean flowers, and how long it flowers, are independent traits with distinct genetic controls,” Ms Dudley said.
“That’s important to know because it opens opportunities for breeders to optimise 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 tonnes per hectare, with the industry targeting 2 tonnes 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 synchronised that flowering is as we get closer to harvest."
The UQ research has global significance beyond Australia's mechanised 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 realise the importance and impact these results could have,” Ms Dudley said.
Dr Smith said the research opens 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."
The research, published in the Journal of Experimental Botany, was funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and the Department of Primary Industries and supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.
Images are available via Dropbox.
Media: Caitlin Dudley, c.dudley@uq.edu.au, +61 437 010 394; Dr Millicent Smith, millicent.smith@uq.edu.au, +61 412 617 567; QAAFI Communications, Natalie MacGregor, n.macgregor@uq.edu.au, +61 409 135 651.
The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation is a research institute at The University of Queensland established with and supported by the Department of Primary Industries.
