Potential Uses of Wild Germplasms of Grain Legumes for Crop Improvement.
Challenged by population increase, climatic change, and soil deterioration, crop improvement is always a priority in securing food supplies. Although the production of grain legumes is in general lower than that of cereals, the nutritional value of grain legumes make them important components of food security. Nevertheless, limited by severe genetic bottlenecks during domestication and human selection, grain legumes, like other crops, have suffered from a loss of genetic diversity which is essential for providing genetic materials for crop improvement programs. Illustrated by whole-genome-sequencing, wild relatives of crops adapted to various environments were shown to maintain high genetic diversity. In this review, we focused on nine important grain legumes (soybean, peanut, pea, chickpea, common bean, lentil, cowpea, lupin, and pigeonpea) to discuss the potential uses of their wild relatives as genetic resources for crop breeding and improvement, and summarized the various genetic/genomic approaches adopted for these purposes.
Centre for Soybean Research of the Partner State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology and School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. munioz.nacira@inta.gob.ar.|Centro de Investigaciones Agropecuarias-INTA, Instituto de Fisiología y Recursos Genéticos Vegetales, Córdoba X5000, Argentina. munioz.nacira@inta.gob.ar.|Cátedra de Fisiología Vegetal, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba X5000, Argentina. munioz.nacira@inta.gob.ar.
Nacira
N
Muñoz
Centre for Soybean Research of the Partner State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology and School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. merestarry@gmail.com.
Ailin
A
Liu
Centre for Soybean Research of the Partner State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology and School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. leokan@link.cuhk.edu.hk.
Leo
L
Kan
Centre for Soybean Research of the Partner State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology and School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. limanwah@cuhk.edu.hk.
Man-Wah
MW
Li
Centre for Soybean Research of the Partner State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology and School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. honming@cuhk.edu.hk.
Hon-Ming
HM
Lam
D001947:Breeding; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000235:genetics / Q000600:supply & distribution; D000071278:Domestication; D002523:Edible Grain / Q000235:genetics; D007887:Fabaceae / Q000235:genetics; D005523:Food Supply; D014644:Genetic Variation; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans
domestication; genetic bottleneck; genetic diversity; genomics-assisted breeding; grain legumes; wild germplasms