Identification of resistance to Peanut bud necrosis virus (PBNV) in wild Arachis germplasm

Eighty three wild Arachis germplasm accessions, belonging to 24 species of five sections and one natural hybrid derivative of a cross between the cultivated and a wild Arachis species, were evaluated along with a susceptible groundnut cultivar for resistance to Peanut bud necrosis virus (PBNV) in a replicated field trial at ICRISAT, Patancheru, India. Thirty days after sowing, the percentage of infected plants were recorded for all the accessions and subsequently young leaflets from all these accessions were tested for the presence of the virus by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). One accession each of A. benensis and A. cardenasii, and two accessions of A. villosa, in the section Arachis, two accessions of A. appressipila in the section Procumbentes, and one accession of A. triseminata under section Triseminatae were not infected by PBNV. These seven field‐resistant accessions were tested under glasshouse conditions for virus resistance by mechanical sap inoculations. One accession of A. cardenasii and two accessions of A. villosa did not show systemic infection. Similarly, in another glasshouse test, where 13 A. cardenasii accessions of section Arachis were evaluated, two accessions did not show systemic infection. In all these resistant accessions, the inoculated leaves showed infection, but the systemic leaves did not show the presence of virus in spite of repeated mechanical sap inoculations. So, the resistance in these accessions appears to be due to a block in systemic movement of the virus. To our knowledge this is the first report on the identification of resistance to PBNV in wild Arachis species. Since both A. cardenasii and A. villosa are the progenitors of cultivated groundnut and can be hybridised with the latter, the resistant accessions are being utilised in conventional breeding programmes to transfer PBNV resistance to widely adapted groundnut cultivars.