The challenge of developing abiotic and biotic stress resistance in cool-season food legumes [Cicer arietinum, Lens culinaris, Pisum sativum, Vicia faba]

Cool-season food legumes -Chickpea, faba bean, lentil, and peas - account for nearly 35 of the area and 55 of pulse production in the world. In the Mediterranean rainfed farming systems, they are the most dominant pulse crops. Their productivity, however, is low because of a wide range of abiotic and biotic stresses. The major abiotic stress factors are cold, heat, drought, nutrient deficiency, nutrient toxicity, and lodging. Water-logging can also be a constraint in some areas. The major biotic stresses are those caused by fungal, bacterial and viral diseases, insect pests, nematodes, and parasitic broomrape (Orobanche crenata). The relative importance of different stress factors differs not only from crop to crop but also for the same crop in different regions. Host-plant resistance, either alone or as a component of an integrated control strategy, appears to be the most practical and economic approach for reducing the effects of abiotic and biotic stresses. Research on host-plant resistance/tolerance was undertaken by several national and international programs in the major production areas and notable progress made. However, the stresses often occur together in an interacting fashion, necessitating the incorporation of multiple stress resistance in suitable agronomic backgrounds. Also, the variations in pathotypes and the existence of biotypes in insect pests, make durable resistance breeding a difficult task. Conventional breeding strategies showed good success but their effectiveness can be considerably increased with the application of suitable biotechnologies. Improvement in screening techniques, use of molecular markers for identification and utilization of economically important genes, use of in vitro culture for transferring desirable genes from wild to cultivated species, and genetic engineering using alien genes all offer opportunities for improving the resistance of future cultivars of cool-season food legumes to different stresses