Strategies for the utilization of USDA mungbean germplasm collection for breeding outcomes

Global and mid-west U.S. agriculture requires diversification and new sources of protein for sustainable crop production. Mungbean as a legume crop has a long cultivation history in Asia; however, its potential lays hitherto underexplored in the U.S. As a first step towards exploring mungbean for crop diversification in northern latitudes, crop germplasm centers that harbor worldwide crop resources need to be utilized. This study explores the potential of mungbean in the U.S. northern latitudes through the utilization of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) germplasm resources. Complete collection of USDA mungbean germplasm was screened under Iowa field conditions in 2017, to shortlist 482 accessions to create an Iowa mungbean panel. The Iowa mungbean panel was further characterized for field adaptability traits in 2018 and 2019 and genotyped using genotype-by-sequencing (GBS) to conduct association mapping of important traits. Genetic markers were identified for both quan...