Exploiting genetic and genomic resources to enhance productivity and abiotic stress adaptation of underutilized pulses.

Underutilized pulses and their wild relatives are typically stress tolerant and their seeds are packed with protein, fibers, minerals, vitamins, and phytochemicals. The consumption of such nutritionally dense legumes together with cereal-based food may promote global food and nutritional security. However, such species are deficient in a few or several desirable domestication traits thereby reducing their agronomic value, requiring further genetic enhancement for developing productive, nutritionally dense, and climate resilient cultivars.

Genome-Wide association analysis of phenotypic traits in Bambara groundnut under drought-stressed and non-stressed conditions based on DArTseq SNP.

Introduction: Bambara groundnut (BG) (Vigna subterranea [L.] Verdc) is an indigenous, resilient, but underutilized leguminous crop that occurs mostly as genetically heterogeneous landraces with limited information on the drought tolerant attributes. This study elucidates the associations between sequencing-based diversity array technology (DArTseq) and phenotypic character as well as differing indices related to drought tolerance in one hundred accessions of Bambara groundnut.

Genome-Wide Association Study Revealed SNP Alleles Associated with Seed Size Traits in African Yam Bean ( (Hochst ex. A. Rich.) Harms).

Seed size is an important yield and quality-determining trait in higher plants and is also crucial to their evolutionary fitness. In African yam bean (AYB), seed size varies widely among different accessions. However, the genetic basis of such variation has not been adequately documented.

A review of biotechnological approaches towards crop improvement in African yam bean ( Hochst. Ex A. Rich.).

Globally, climate change is a major factor that contributes significantly to food and nutrition insecurity, limiting crop yield and availability. Although efforts are being made to curb food insecurity, millions of people still suffer from malnutrition. For the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal of Food Security to be achieved, diverse cropping systems must be developed instead of relying mainly on a few staple crops.

Effect-directed profiling and identification of bioactive metabolites from field, in vitro-grown and acclimatized Musa spp. accessions using high-performance thin-layer chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Bananas and plantains (Musa spp.) are used as nutritious foods, and at the same time, are a source of phytoconstituents for the pharmaceutical industry. As biological activities of especially the pulp and peel of Musa spp.

Further Evidence That the Genebank Standards for Drying Orthodox Seeds May Not Be Optimal for Subsequent Seed Longevity.

Maximizing seed longevity is important for genebanks to efficiently manage their accessions, reducing the frequency of costly regeneration cycles and the loss of genetic integrity. Research on rice seeds has shown that subsequent longevity in air-dry storage can be improved by drying seeds, which are metabolically active at harvest (moisture contents above a critical value close to 16.5%), for an initial period at a higher temperature (40°C-60°C) than that currently recommended by the current genebank standards (5°C-20°C).

Red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) draft genome provides a platform for trait improvement.

Red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) is a globally significant forage legume in pastoral livestock farming systems. It is an attractive component of grassland farming, because of its high yield and protein content, nutritional value and ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen.

De novo assembly of red clover transcriptome based on RNA-Seq data provides insight into drought response, gene discovery and marker identification.

Background: Red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) is a versatile forage crop legume, which can tolerate a variety of soils and is suitable for silage production for winter feed and for grazing. It is one of the most important forage legumes in temperate livestock agriculture.

A hybrid next generation transcript sequencing-based approach to identify allelic and homeolog-specific single nucleotide polymorphisms in allotetraploid white clover.

Background: White clover (Trifolium repens L.) is an allotetraploid species possessing two highly collinear ancestral sub-genomes. The apparent existence of highly similar homeolog copies for the majority of genes in white clover is problematic for the development of genome-based resources in the species.

The genetic location of the self-incompatibility locus in white clover (Trifolium repens L.).

White clover (Trifolium repens L.) is a forage legume of considerable economic importance in temperate agricultural systems. It has a strong self-incompatibility system.

Construction, characterization, and preliminary BAC-end sequencing analysis of a bacterial artificial chromosome library of white clover (Trifolium repens L.).

White clover (Trifolium repens L.) is a forage legume widely used in combination with grass in pastures because of its ability to fix nitrogen. We have constructed a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library of an advanced breeding line of white clover.

A simple model of feedback regulation for nitrate uptake and N2 fixation in contrasting phenotypes of white clover.

A simple three equation model is proposed for the feedback regulation of nitrate uptake and N2 fixation, based on the concentration of the organic N substrate pool within the plant and two parameters denoting the N substrate concentrations at which half-maximal inhibition occurs. This model simulated three contrasting phenotypes of white clover (Trifolium repens L.) inbred lines with (1) normal rates of nitrate uptake and N2 fixation (NNU); (2) low rates of nitrate uptake (LNU); and (3) very low rates of N2 fixation (VLF).