Bui Huyen is a plant breeder specializing in the study of legumes such as soybean (Glycine max), peanuts (Arachis hypogaea) and mungbean (Vigna radiata). Her research mainly focuses on species cultivated in Vietnam, where she investigates crop adaptability and tolerance to variations in rainfall, altitude and disease. She has a strong interest in breeding varieties that will help cope with the future effects of climate change in her country.

During her fellowship with Bioversity International, Bui Huyen focused on identifying the causal agents and resistance of mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) to Mungbean yellow mosaic disease (MYMD). Mungbean is a traditional legume food crop in Vietnam and commonly used in Asian dishes. Its cultivation however, is often threatened by MYMD, a geminivirus that is transmitted by whitefly (Bemisia tabaci Genn.), and can cause yield losses of up to 70%. Bui Huyen’s research therefore, focused on identifying prevalent strains of the disease in Vietnam, and mapping sources of resistance in mungbean populations in order to develop more resilient varieties. This would offer a more sustainable alternative to the current management technique of using chemical pesticides, which is neither effective, nor environmentally-friendly.

Her research and training was done in collaboration with several institutes including, the The World Vegetable Centre (AVRDC) in Taiwan and India, as well as the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI) in Queensland, Australia. She is currently conducting field screening on a subset of mungbean collection in Vietnam, and intends to publish her results in the near future. Bui Huyen plans to continue her research on mungbean with a PhD on: “The identification of molecular markers linked with Mungbean Yellow Mosaic Disease (MYMD) resistance genes in Mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek)”. She is currently a researcher in the Division of Seed Multiplication and Germplasm Evaluation at the Plant Resources Centre (PRC) in Hanoi, Vietnam. A comment from Bui Huyen on the Fellows Gallery:

I just wanted to thank Bioversity for their interest in Fellows and for the set up of a communication channel for us. I hope that Bioversity will continue to create more favorable conditions for scientists to develop their abilities, especially for young researchers.