American Journal of Plant Sciences, 2013, 4, 1924-1927 http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2013.410236 Published Online October 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ajps) Inheritance of Resistance to Mungbean Yellow Mosaic Virus (MYMV) in Inter and Intra Specific Crosses of Mungbean (Vigna radiata) * M. Sudha 1# , A. Karthikeyan 1# , P. Anusuya 1 , N. M. Ganesh 1 , M. Pandiyan 2 , N. Senthil 1 , M. Raveendran 1 , P. Nagarajan 1 , K. Angappan 1 1 Department of Plant Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, Centre for Plant Molecular Biology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India; 2 National Pulse Research Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Vamban, Tamil Nadu, India. Email: # sudhatamil@gmail.com Received July 10 th , 2013; revised August 10 th , 2013; accepted September 1 st , 2013 Copyright © 2013 M. Sudha et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT The objective of this research was to study the mode of inheritance of resistance to mungbean yellow mosaic virus (MYMV) in inter TNAU RED × VRM (Gg) 1 and intra KMG 189 × VBN (Gg) 2 specific crosses of mungbean. An infector row technique was used for evaluating parents, F 1 , F 2 and F 3 plants for MYMV resistance. No insecticide was sprayed in order to maintain the natural whitefly population in experimental field. In the field condition, only after 80% of plants showed MYMV incidence, and the scoring of the test materials was done by MYMV disease rating scale. Ac- cording to the mean disease score, the mungbean genotypes were categorized into five groups resistant (R), moderately resistant (MR), moderately susceptible (MS), susceptible (S) and highly susceptible (HS). 3 (Susceptible): 1 (Resistance) was observed in all two crosses of all F 2 population and it showed that the dominance of susceptibility over the resis- tance and the results of the F 3 segregation (1:2:1) confirm the segregation pattern of the F 2 segregation. Collectively all the two crosses F 2 and F 3 generations results suggested that a single recessive gene is involved in resistance against the MYMV disease. Keywords: Inheritance; Mungbean Yellow Mosaic Virus; Vigna spp. 1. Introduction Mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek], also known as greengram, green bean, mash bean, golden gram and green soy is an important source of dietary protein across Asia.It is widely grown in tropical and sub-tropical re- gions as a monoculture and as a component in cropping systems. Almost 90% of world’s mungbean production comes from Asia, and India is the world’s largest mung- bean producer cultivated on 2.84 million ha area with a production of 1.04 million tones and productivity of 386 kg/ha [1]. However the standard yield of mungbean worldwide is very low (384 kg/ha) and the mungbean production has not considerably increased yet. The main cause for the low yield is the susceptibility of the crop to insects, weeds and diseases caused by fungus, virus or bacterium, of which Mungbean yellow mosaic virus (MYMV) is one of the most prevalent and destructive viral pathogens in mungbean. It causes severe yield loss and a reduction in seed quality. In India, MYMV affects all mungbean-producing regions in the country. MYMV produces typical yellow mosaic symptoms. The symp- toms appear in the form of small irregular yellow specs and spots along the veins, which enlarge until leaves were completely yellowed. Diseased plants were stunted, with fewer flowers and pods that bear smaller, occasionally shriveled seeds in severe cases, and other plant parts also become completely yellow. Depending on the severity of the MYMV infection, the yield penalty may reach up to 85% [2]. MYMV transmitted in a circulative persistent manner by white fly Bemisia tabaci. MYMV control is often based on limiting the vector population with insec- ticides, which are ineffective under severe whitefly infes- tations [3]. The use of resistant varieties is the most de- sirable strategy to manage the disease in an economical and environmentally-friendly way. Information on in- * The authors contributed equally on this work. # Corresponding author. Copyright © 2013 SciRes. AJPS