Cowpea: a legume crop for a challenging environment.
Cowpea is a grain legume native from Africa and is a primary source of protein for millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the developing world. The main important characteristics of this crop include a good protein quality with a high nutritional value, its nitrogen-fixing ability, and an ability to be more drought- and heat-tolerant than most of its legume relatives. In a research perspective, studies of cowpea are relatively scarce, despite its relevance to agriculture in the developing world and its resilience to stress. The present review provides an overview of different aspects of cowpea, with a special emphasis on the molecular markers for assessing genetic diversity, as well as on biochemical and transcriptomic data with respect to evaluating cowpea drought stress tolerance. The integration of both datasets will be useful for the improvement of cowpea because research on drought stress tolerance is of major interest for this crop in a challenging environment. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.
Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environment and Biological Sciences (CITAB), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), Vila Real, Portugal.
Márcia
M
Carvalho
BioSystems & Integrative Sciences Institute (BioISI), Plant Functional Biology Centre, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, Braga, Portugal.
Teresa
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1385-4799
T
Lino-Neto
Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environment and Biological Sciences (CITAB), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), Vila Real, Portugal.
Eduardo
E
Rosa
Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environment and Biological Sciences (CITAB), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), Vila Real, Portugal.|Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, UTAD, Quinta dos Prados, Vila Real, Portugal.
Valdemar
V
Carnide
D055864:Droughts; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D014644:Genetic Variation; D009753:Nutritive Value; D000070658:Vigna / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
cowpea; drought stress; gene expression; genetic diversity; molecular markers; morphological traits