Four lupin species, Lupinus angustifolius, L. albus, L. luteus, and L. mutabilis, are grown as cool-season grain legume crops. Fifteen viruses infect them. Two of these, bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV) and cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), cause diseases that threaten grain lupin production. Phytosanitary and cultural control measures are mainly used to manage them. However, breeding virus-resistant lupin cultivars provides an additional management approach. The need to develop this approach stimulated a search for virus resistance sources amongst cultivated lupin species and their wild relatives. This review focuses on the progress made in optimizing virus resistance screening procedures, identifying host resistances to BYMV, CMV, and additional viral pathogen alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV), and the inclusion of BYMV and CMV resistance within lupin breeding programs. The resistance types found in different combinations of virus and grain lupin species include localized hypersensitivity, systemic hypersensitivity, extreme resistance, and partial resistance to aphid or seed transmission. These resistances provide a key enabler towards fast tracking gains in grain lupin breeding. Where studied, their inheritance depended upon single dominant genes or was polygenic. Although transgenic virus resistance was incorporated into L. angustifolius and L. luteus successfully, it proved unstable. Priorities for future research are discussed.
Keywords: breeding; disease; grain legumes; lupins; management; research priorities; resistances; virus; yield losses.