White Lupin (Lupinus Albus) Anthracnose Resistance Pre-Breeding Project In Switzerland

Summary

White lupin (Lupinus albus) could contribute to the recent increase of organic grain legume production in Switzerland. However, its production is impaired by anthracnose (Colletotrichum lupini), against which FiBL is running a resistance pre-breeding project. In 2019, 196 new genetic resources and 60 F4 breeding lines were compared on-farm to the progeny of 288 accessions selected from 2015 to 2018. Relative disease scores compared to reference cultivar Amiga (mean score 6.9 on a scale from 1 (no symptoms) to 9 (plants completely dead) were calculated and ranged from -2.25 to +2. Mean relative scores of selected genotypes and breeding lines were -0.7 and -0.5, respectively, compared to -0.33 in the new accessions. The frequency of more resistant genotypes was about twice as high in the selected accessions and breeding lines than in the new accessions. These are valuable data for breeding as well as for development and validation of genetic markers for resistance screening.