Screening wild vigna species and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) landraces for sources of resistance to striga gesnerioides

Abstract

This chapter presents the results of a study conducted on the experimental field of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Minjibir, Kano State, Nigeria, during the planting seasons of 2012 and 2013 to identify some wild Vigna species and landrace germplasm lines that are highly resistant to Striga gesnerioides. In 2012, a total of 350 accessions of wild Vigna belonging to 45 different species and from 32 countries of origin collected from the Genetic Resources Centre (GRC) of IITA were used. In 2013, a total of 280 accessions of cowpea landraces that were geographically co-located with the resistant wild Vigna species from the Striga screening experiment in 2012 were selected from the cowpea core collection available in the GRC. The results of the experiments indicate that 21 accessions from some wild Vigna species (V. ambacensis, V. davyi, V. glabrescens, V. marina, V. mungo, V. oblongifolia, V. parkeri, V. racemosa, V. reticulata, V. vexillata and V. unguiculata subsp. dekindtiana) are potential sources of genes for resistance to S. gesnerioides.