title: Landmark research in legumes.
abstract: Legumes are members of the family Fabaceae or Leguminosae and include economically important grain legumes, oilseed crops, forage crops, shrubs, and tropical or subtropical trees. Legumes are a rich source of quality protein for humans and animals. They also enrich the soil by producing their own nitrogen in symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. International centers and national institutes collect, maintain, distribute, and produce high-yielding legumes (grain-pulses, oilseeds, forages, nutraceuticals, medicinal shrubs, and trees). Legume breeders are confined within the primary gene pools (GP-1) in their varietal improvement programs and have not exploited secondary gene pools (GP-2), tertiary gene pools (GP-3), or quaternary gene pools (GP-4). Legumes are also an excellent source of timber, medicine, nutraceuticals, tannins, gums, insecticides, resins, varnish, paints, dyes, and eco-friendly by-products such as soy diesel. Three forage crops, Medicago truncatula, Lotus japonicus, and Trifolium pratense, are model legumes for phylogenetic studies and genome sequencing. This paper concludes that a "protein revolution" is needed to meet the protein demands of the world.
authors.affiliation: Department of Crop Sciences, National Soybean Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, 1101 West Peabody Drive, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. ramsingh@uiuc.edu
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Nelson
mesh_terms: D007887:Fabaceae / Q000235:genetics*; D018745:Genome, Plant; D012106:Research