DARI Research Unit for Bio-stresses on Legume and Oilseed Crops
The unit was established in Dryland Agricultural Research Institute (DARI), in Maragheh, to do research on the stresses caused by biological agents; including plant pathogens and pests on pulse crops, oilseeds and feed legumes growing in dry and semi dry areas of Iran. Bio-stresses are considered as one of the most important reasons of reduction in quality and quantity of yield of the crops in Iran; and their identifying, characterizationof their prevalence across geographic regions and estimation yield loss due to their activities are main steps in assumptionof appropriate control strategy(s).
DARI, is leader research institute to introduce high yield, adapted and resistant cultivars of the crops to rain-fed areas of the country and more than 60 varieties were released since its establishment in 1992. Monitoring of stability of the cultivars against new races of pathogens, and identifying new-merged plant pathogens and insect pests,areimportant duties of the unit. In this way, more than 20 fungal plant pathogens are going to be first-reported on the crops from the country, such as Stemphylium blight and Botrytis gray mold on lentil, Ascochyta blight and Fusarium wilt on lathyrus and vetches, andSemphylium – Alternaria blight on Lalemanita spp. Furthermore, identifying pattern of distribution of pathogenic races of important diseases such as Ascocyhta blight and Fusarium wilt of chickpea is vitally important in expectation of breeding programs of the crops, which is mainly achieved through research activities conducting in this unit. Screening, characterization of mechanism(s) of resistance, use biotechnological tools,molecular assisted selection (MAS) and breeding of resistant cultivars to the biological agents are further services that is considered to be offered by the research unit. Accordingly, more than 500 accessions of chickpea and lentil crops were screened to Ascochyta blight, Fusarium wilt and Botrytis grey mold during last six months.
It is clear that the unit is going to has a key role in sustaining agriculture in dry areas of Iran andis ready to do collaboration with national and international research institutes and universities.
