Green gram and black gram: Prospects of cultivation and breeding in Russian Federation

Abstract

Diversification of crop production in the Russian Federation could be partly achieved by the introduction and production of minor and underutilized crops. Green gram or mung bean (Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek) and black gram or urd (V. mungo (L.) Hepper) are grain legume crops cultivated in limited areas in the Russian Federation. Meanwhile, green gram occupies about 8.5 % of the world production area under pulses (without soybean). It is cultivated mainly in countries of Southeast Asia, but production is expanding to the entire subtropical belt of the globe. In our country these crops can be successfully grown on irrigation in a number of regions in the southern area of the European part and the Russian Far East, where the temperatures during their vegetation are about 28–30 °C and always above 15 °C. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the world’s experience in breeding improvement of mung bean and urd as crops with promise for cultivation in certain soil and climatic zones of the Russian Federation. The world production, use of these high-protein crops, history and peculiarities of breeding, including in the USSR, are covered. To expand the production of both crops in the Russian Federation, their popularization and development of breeding are required. Basic requirements for modern varieties include resistance to biotic and abiotic stressors which can be introgressed from wild relatives. The great importance of both crops in the Asian countries led to the rapid development of molecular researches there. The genome of black gram has been fully sequenced, the genome of green gram has been partly sequenced. Some genes and QTL of adaptability traits have been marked and mapped in a number of wild species of the genus Vigna. The role of wild relatives in the breeding of crops concerned is discussed. In the world genebanks, significant genetic resources of mung bean and urd have been accumulated. All this creates prerequisites for the development of marker-assistant and genomic breeding.