Biotech Updates

Team from Australia Develops Drought Tolerant Mungbean

June 4, 2014

A research team from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia is working to produce hardier and more drought tolerant varieties of mungbean. UQT's Professor Sagadevan Mundree and researcher Michael Dodt explained to members of the Australian Mungbean Association that they are pursuing three key elements to create hardier varieties of mungbean.

According to Dodt, they are working to enhance the root architecture of the plant to make the root system deeper and have more volume to spread over a wider area for more access to water and nutrients. They are also using computer modelling software to identify the highest yielding mungbean varieties for different growing conditions.

Dodt said "This program has been used to great success in relation to growing sorghum and has the potential to provide great benefits to mungbean growers, identifying advances in genetics and determining the best type of mungbean for a specific environment."

For more, read the UQT news release at: https://www.qut.edu.au/news/news?news-id=73175.