Bean Enhance

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is the major legume crop produced in East and Central Africa (ECA) providing a vital source of nutrition and income to millions of small-holder farmers. Unfortunately common bean productivity can be influenced negatively by a range of biotic and abiotic factors. Angular leafspot (ALS), caused by the fungal pathogen Pseudocercospora griseola is a primary cause of yield losses in ECA and outbreaks of the disease can result in nutritional and financial poverty for growers and their families.

Bean Enhance is a translational research project that will exploit established Ugandan pathogenomics resources for the common bean angular leafspot pathogen, aligning them with ongoing disease resistance breeding programmes at CIAT-Uganda and expanding them so local plant pathologists can monitor the movement of isolates in Tanzania as well as Uganda, and to enable plant breeders to test the response to key sources of resistance in order to deploy regionally relevant or more durable varieties in the future. This will allow important ALS isolates to be tracked effectively, allowing growers to make better variety choices to avoid losses to disease. Reductions in disease will contribute effectively to improve socio-economic stability in Tanzania and Uganda by increasing small-holder incomes, and through promoting legumes as a sustainable crop in agricultural rotations.

The project will also develop effective testing and certification procedures for supplying disease-free basic seed to common bean producers through implementing a series of workshops in Tanzania and Uganda to train key actors in the seed production pipeline; this will include members of grower/producer groups, the seed production industry, extensions services and the government to ensure knowledge can be disseminated to the greatest relevant audience and translated to achieve the greatest impact possible.

The Bean Enhance project will exploit novel pathogenomics resources created previously in BBSRC project Panacea (BB/R015376/1) for tracking movement of the angular leafspot pathogen, Pseudocercospora griseola in Uganda. The project will first extend pathogen surveillance to Tanzania in order to sample and test for additional reservoirs of genetic diversity using a set of differential cultivars to distinguish between different pathogen races to capture isolates and subsequently test them with molecular pathotyping resources developed in Panacea. The new Tanzanian isolates and a selection of typed isolates from the established Ugandan collection will then be screened against a panel of putative resistant lines to identify novel sources of race specific resistance to increase the range of effective controls options to reduce the negative impacts from ALS. Finally, Seed testing and certification procedures will be developed in conjunction with partners at CIAT, NaCRRI and TARI to develop an effecting screening methodology to reduce ALS contamination in seed lots and to empower key stakeholder in the informal l seed production industry to continue to deliver improved, disease-free basic seed in the future. This testing will also be supported through the development of isothermal diagnostics to provide a fast, robust and 'field-able' method to support ALS detection. These activities will contribute effectively to reducing the negative effects on common bean productivity by ALS, helping to improve socio-economic well-being, nutritional status and enhancing sustainable farming practices.