Pea Breeding for Resistance to Rhizospheric Pathogens

Abstract

Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is a grain legume widely cultivated in temperate climates. It is important in the race for food security owing to its multipurpose low-input requirement and environmental promoting traits. Pea is key in nitrogen fixation, biodiversity preservation, and nutritional functions as food and feed. Unfortunately, like most crops, pea production is constrained by several pests and diseases, of which rhizosphere disease dwellers are the most critical due to their long-term persistence in the soil and difficulty to manage. Understanding the rhizosphere environment can improve host plant root microbial association to increase yield stability and facilitate improved crop performance through breeding. Thus, the use of various germplasm and genomic resources combined with scientific collaborative efforts has contributed to improving pea resistance/cultivation against rhizospheric diseases. This improvement has been achieved through robust phenotyping, genotyping, agronomic practices, and resistance breeding. Nonetheless, resistance to rhizospheric diseases is still limited, while biological and chemical-based control strategies are unrealistic and unfavourable to the environment, respectively. Hence, there is a need to consistently scout for host plant resistance to resolve these bottlenecks. Herein, in view of these challenges, we reflect on pea breeding for resistance to diseases caused by rhizospheric pathogens, including fusarium wilt, root rots, nematode complex, and parasitic broomrape. Here, we will attempt to appraise and harmonise historical and contemporary knowledge that contributes to pea resistance breeding for soilborne disease management and discuss the way forward.

The Microbial Connection to Sustainable Agriculture

“…The heredity of microbiomes and their connection to agronomic traits are both supported by recent studies. Studies conducted on different genotypes of canola showed that there was a notable difference in the percentage of microbial species [ 134 , 135 ]. As there is growing evidence that the microbiome affects host performance, breeding programs must successfully integrate genotype, environment, microbiome, and management interactions [ 136 ].…”

Plant breeding is needed to meet agroecological requirements: Legume crops as a case study

“…There are both many different crops and many different pests and diseases that cannot be addressed in this paper. Recent reviews are available covering resistance breeding either by crop (i.e., common bean (Taboada et al, 2022), faba bean (Rubiales and Khazaei, 2022), grasspea (Ellis et al, 2022), mungbean (Nair et al, 2019), lentil (Roy et al, 2023), pea (Parihar et al, 2022), soybean (Lin et al, 2022)), or by groups of diseases or pests (i.e., insect pests (Edwards and Singh, 2006; Keneni et al, 2011); airborne biotrophic pathogens (Sillero et al, 2006; Martins et al, 2020), necrotrophic pathogens (Tivoli et al, 2006; Bilkiss et al, 2019), soil pathogens (Wohor et al, 2022), parasitic weeds (Rubiales et al, 2006; Rubiales, 2018), nematodes (Ruanpanun and Somta, 2021) or viral diseases (Jha et al, 2023) among others). Attention is needed to better understand not only the genetic basis of resistance, but also the biology of the pathogens, and monitoring their distribution.…”

High-density linkage mapping and genetic dissection of resistance to broomrape (Orobanche crenata Forsk.) in pea (Pisum sativum L.)

“…Breeding for resistance proved to be a valuable strategy to cope with Oc and other parasitic weeds belonging to the botanic family of Orobanchaceae ( Jamil et al., 2011 ; Fernández-Aparicio et al., 2014 ; Jamil et al., 2021 ; Li et al., 2023a ), whereas agronomic and chemical control methods displayed limited efficacy ( Fernández-Aparicio et al., 2016a ). However, no Oc-resistant pea cultivar is commercially available ( Rubiales, 2014 ; Wohor et al., 2022 ); thus, pea cultivation has been abandoned in several areas with a large Oc seed bank ( Renna et al., 2015 ).…”