Biotechnological tools in lupin breeding and disease diagnosis.

Transgenic plants of narrow-leafed lupin (Lupinus angustifolius) and yellow lupin (L. luteus) were generated using meristem inoculation with Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Plants with increased tolerance of the herbicide Basta (glufosinate) were produced, as were yellow lupin plants with improved tolerance of bean yellow mosaic virus. This technology is being extended for the introduction of other useful traits such as resistance to cucumber mosaic virus and fungal pathogens. Commercial molecular diagnostic tests for cucumber mosaic virus (RT-PCR and real time fluorescence PCR) and anthracnose (caused by Colletotrichum acutatum rather than C. gloeosporioides [Glomerella cingulata]; PCR) in lupin seeds were developed and are in routine use. Gene mapping of lupins is in progress, with the first molecular marker (for early flowering) developed as a routine PCR test.