Peanut is the second-most important legum e grown worldwide. Cultivated peanut is a disomic tetraploid, 2n-4 x -40, with limited genetic diversity due to a genetic bottleneck in formation o f the polyploid from ancestors A. duranensis and A. ipaensis. Consequently, resistance_to biotic stresses is limited in the cultigen; however, w ild species possess strong resistances. Transfer o f these re sistances is hindered by differences o f ploidy, but production o f synthetic amphidiploids, coupled with use o f m olecular markers, enables efficient gene transfer. Marker maps have been made from interspecific crosses, and SSR-based maps from cultivated parents have been developed recently. At least 410 resistance gene analogues have been identified. The first markers for biotic stress tolerance were for root-knot nematode resistance and introgressed from one A. cardenasii chromosome. These and improved markers have been used for marker-assisted backcrossing, contributing to release o f three cultivars. Additional QTLs have been identified since.Early and late leafspots cause significant yield losses worldwide, and resistance depends on multiple genes. U sing interspecific populations, five resistance QTLs for early leafspot were identified using greenhouse inoculations, and five QTLs for late leafspot were identified using detached leaf assays. U sing cultivated species populations, 28 QTLs were identified for LLS resistance; all but one w ere minor QTLs; the major QTL was donated by an interspecific introgression line parent. Rust often occurs alongside leafspots, and rust resistance was characterized as one major QTL, plus several smaller QTLs. Marker-assisted backcrossing o f this major QTL has been performed into different populations. QTLs for resistance to other biotic stresses have been identified, namely to groundnut rosette virus, Sclerotinia blight, afiatoxin contamination, aphids, and tomato spotted w ilt virus. Marker-assisted breeding is still in early stages, and develop ment o f more rapid and inexpensive markers from transcriptome and genom e sequencing is expected to accelerate progress.