title: Neglecting legumes has compromised human health and sustainable food production.
abstract: The United Nations declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses (grain legumes) under the banner 'nutritious seeds for a sustainable future'. A second green revolution is required to ensure food and nutritional security in the face of global climate change. Grain legumes provide an unparalleled solution to this problem because of their inherent capacity for symbiotic atmospheric nitrogen fixation, which provides economically sustainable advantages for farming. In addition, a legume-rich diet has health benefits for humans and livestock alike. However, grain legumes form only a minor part of most current human diets, and legume crops are greatly under-used. Food security and soil fertility could be significantly improved by greater grain legume usage and increased improvement of a range of grain legumes. The current lack of coordinated focus on grain legumes has compromised human health, nutritional security and sustainable food production.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Plant Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.|School of Plant Biology, Faculty of Science, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Christine H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Foyer
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences and Center for Soybean Research of the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
authors.forename: Hon-Ming
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.affiliation: Division of Plant Sciences and National Center for Soybean Biotechnology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA.
authors.forename: Henry T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Kadambot H M
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Siddique
authors.affiliation: The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia.|International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru 502 324, Greater Hyderabad, India.
authors.forename: Rajeev K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Varshney
authors.affiliation: School of Plant Biology, Faculty of Science, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia.|The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Timothy D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Colmer
authors.affiliation: The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Wallace
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cowling
authors.affiliation: Plant Breeding Institute, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Sydney, Narrabri, New South Wales 2390, Australia.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bramley
authors.affiliation: The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia.|School of Medicine and Pharmacology, Royal Perth Hospital Unit, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6000, Australia.
authors.forename: Trevor A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.affiliation: The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia.|School of Medicine and Pharmacology, Royal Perth Hospital Unit, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6000, Australia.
authors.forename: Jonathan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hodgson
authors.affiliation: Centre for Plant Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.affiliation: Department of Metabolic Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, NR4 7UH, UK.
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Production and Soil Science, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa.
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kunert
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Production and Soil Science, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vorster
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7080, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cullis
authors.affiliation: Plant BioSystems Division, Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2P5, Canada.
authors.forename: Jocelyn A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ozga
authors.affiliation: Fuli Institute of Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.|Monash Asia Institute, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia.
authors.forename: Mark L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Wahlqvist
authors.affiliation: College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
authors.forename: Huixia
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shou
authors.affiliation: College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
authors.forename: Jingquan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Centre for Plant Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
authors.forename: Nandor
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fodor
authors.affiliation: Centre for Carbon Water and Food, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Sydney, Brownlow Hill, New South Wales 2570, Australia.
authors.forename: Brent N
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences and Center for Soybean Research of the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
authors.forename: Fuk-Ling
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Division of Plant Sciences and National Center for Soybean Biotechnology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA.
authors.forename: Babu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Valliyodan
authors.affiliation: School of Plant Biology, Faculty of Science, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia.|The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia.|The Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, South Perth, Western Australia 6151, Australia.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Considine
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000592:standards; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000254:growth & development; D007887:Fabaceae; D005523:Food Supply; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans