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Quantitative Resistance to Bean dwarf mosaic virus in Common Bean Is Associated with the Bct Gene for Resistance to Beet curly top virus

The dominant resistance gene, Bct, in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) confers qualitative resistance to Beet curly top virus, a leafhopper-transmitted geminivirus in the genus Curtovirus. To determine whether this gene confers resistance to other geminiviruses, bean plants of a recombinant inbred population were sap-inoculated with Bean dwarf mosaic virus (BDMV), a whitefly-transmitted bipartite begomovirus in the genus Begomovirus. Results indicated that Bct (or tightly linked gene) is associated with quantitative resistance to BDMV; thus, the Bct locus is associated with resistance to a bean-infecting begomovirus and curtovirus. The difference in the nature of the resistance to these geminiviruses may indicate a role for minor genes in begomovirus resistance or differences in the virus--host interaction. The Bct locus, whether it acts alone or represents a cluster of tightly linked genes, will be useful in breeding for broad-spectrum begomovirus resistance in common bean.