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Cool season legumes (Faba bean, chickpea, lentil, pea, and grass pea) are important protein harvests for food and nutrition security in many countries. They play key roles in sustainable cereal production through their ecological benefits. However, diseases and pests attack continue to have a substantial impact on crop yield and quality. Although growers used different control options to manage these biotic stresses such as pesticide application, cultural practices, and resistant varieties, there is a pressing need for the development of new, more cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution to help farmers in facing the existing environmental issues. Recently, there is a growing interest among researchers in exploiting Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) for the elaboration of disease and pest control strategies in food legumes and other crops. These compounds have important functions in ecological relationships occurring between plants and their surrounding environment, as well as plants and others species, such as pests and pathogens. Due to their unique properties, VOCs can be employed in improving management alternatives for food legume diseases and pests. In this assessment, we investigated the role of VOCs in plant-pest and plant-pathogen interactions and their present applications in pest and diseases control strategies. We emphasized the ecological importance of employing plant VOCs in legume farming and crop breeding. Additionally, we highlighted the potential of microbial VOCs in facilitating microbe-microbe, microbe-plant and microbe-plant-pest interactions, along with their role in food legume protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cool season legumes (Faba bean, chickpea, lentil, pea, and grass pea) are important protein harvests for food and nutrition security in many countries. They play key roles in sustainable cereal production through their ecological benefits. However, diseases and pests attack continue to have a substantial impact on crop yield and quality. Although growers used different control options to manage these biotic stresses such as pesticide application, cultural practices, and resistant varieties, there is a pressing need for the development of new, more cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution to help farmers in facing the existing environmental issues. Recently, there is a growing interest among researchers in exploiting Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) for the elaboration of disease and pest control strategies in food legumes and other crops. These compounds have important functions in ecological relationships occurring between plants and their surrounding environment, as well as plants and others species, such as pests and pathogens. Due to their unique properties, VOCs can be employed in improving management alternatives for food legume diseases and pests. In this assessment, we investigated the role of VOCs in plant-pest and plant-pathogen interactions and their present applications in pest and diseases control strategies. We emphasized the ecological importance of employing plant VOCs in legume farming and crop breeding. Additionally, we highlighted the potential of microbial VOCs in facilitating microbe-microbe, microbe-plant and microbe-plant-pest interactions, along with their role in food legume protection.

Abstract The use of high-performant varieties could help to improve the production of food legumes and thus meet the demand of the growing world population. However, long periods needed to develop new varieties through traditional breeding are a major obstacle. Thus, new techniques allowing faster genetic advance are needed. Speed breeding using longer periods of light exposure on plants, appears to be a good solution for accelerating plant life cycles and generation turnover. However, applying extended photoperiod causes plant stress and mortality due to lack of information on the adequate intensity to be used in speed breeding protocol. This study examines the impact of light intensity under speed breeding conditions on the development and growth of lentils and chickpeas, with a keen interest in enhancing genetic gain in these key food legumes. Four distinct levels of light intensity (T1: Green-house: 2000 µmol/m2/s; T2: 148–167 µmol/m2/s; T3: 111–129 µmol/m2/s; T4: 74–93 µmol/m2/s) under a photoperiod of 18 h of light and 6 h of darkness were tested in a growth chamber. Significant variation depending on light intensity was observed for plant height, total biomass, number of secondary stems, pods number, number of seeds per plant, growth rate, green canopy cover, time to flowering, time of pod set, time to maturity, vegetative stage length, reproduction stage length and seed filling stage length. Light intensity significantly influenced flowering/maturity and plant’s stress compared to normal conditions in green-house where flowering/maturity were around 67/97 days for lentil and 79/111 days for chickpea. Therefore, lentils in treatment 2 flowered and reached maturity in 30/45 days respectively, with high stress, while chickpeas in the same treatment did not flower. In contrast, treatment 4 showed interesting results, promoting optimal growth with low stress, and flowering/maturity in 27/46 days and 28/54 days, respectively for lentils and chickpeas. These results underline the crucial importance of light management in speed breeding to accelerate vegetative growth and phenology while allowing healthy growth conditions for plants to produce enough seeds for generation turnover.

The use of high-performant varieties could help to improve the production of food legumes and thus meet the demand of the growing world population. However, long periods needed to develop new varieties through traditional breeding are a major obstacle. Thus, new techniques allowing faster genetic advance are needed. Speed breeding using longer periods of light exposure on plants, appears to be a good solution for accelerating plant life cycles and generation turnover. However, applying extended photoperiod causes plant stress and mortality due to lack of information on the adequate intensity to be used in speed breeding protocol. This study examines the impact of light intensity under speed breeding conditions on the development and growth of lentils and chickpeas, with a keen interest in enhancing genetic gain in these key food legumes. Four distinct levels of light intensity (T1: Green-house: 2000 µmol/m2/s; T2: 148–167 µmol/m2/s; T3: 111–129 µmol/m2/s; T4: 74–93 µmol/m2/s) under a photoperiod of 18 h of light and 6 h of darkness were tested in a growth chamber. Significant variation depending on light intensity was observed for plant height, total biomass, number of secondary stems, pods number, number of seeds per plant, growth rate, green canopy cover, time to flowering, time of pod set, time to maturity, vegetative stage length, reproduction stage length and seed filling stage length. Light intensity significantly influenced flowering/maturity and plant's stress compared to normal conditions in green-house where flowering/maturity were around 67/97 days for lentil and 79/111 days for chickpea. Therefore, lentils in treatment 2 flowered and reached maturity in 30/45 days respectively, with high stress, while chickpeas in the same treatment did not flower. In contrast, treatment 4 showed interesting results, promoting optimal growth with low stress, and flowering/maturity in 27/46 days and 28/54 days, respectively for lentils and chickpeas. These results underline the crucial importance of light management in speed breeding to accelerate vegetative growth and phenology while allowing healthy growth conditions for plants to produce enough seeds for generation turnover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paleogenomics focuses on the recovery, manipulation, and analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA) from historical or long-dead organisms to reconstruct and analyze their genomes. The aDNA is commonly obtained from remains found in paleontological and archaeological sites, conserved in museums, and in other archival collections. Herbarium collections represent a great source of phenotypic and genotypic information, and their exploitation has allowed for inference and clarification of previously unsolved taxonomic and systematic relationships. Moreover, herbarium specimens offered a new source for studying phenological traits in plants and for disentangling biogeography and evolutionary scenarios of species. More recently, advances in molecular technologies went in parallel with the decreasing costs of next-generation sequencing (NGS) approaches, which paved the way to the utilization of aDNA for whole-genome studies. Although many studies have been carried out combining modern analytic techniques and ancient samples, such as herbarium specimens, this research field is still relatively unexplored due to the need for improving strategies for aDNA manipulation and exploitation from ancient samples. The higher susceptibility of aDNA to degradation and contamination during herbarium conservation and manipulation and the occurrence of biochemical postmortem damage can result in a more challenging reconstruction of the original DNA sequence. Here, we review the methodological approaches that have been developed for the exploitation of historical herbarium plant materials, such as best practices for aDNA extraction, amplification, and genotyping. We also focus on some strategies to overcome the main problems related to the utilization of herbarium specimens for their exploitation in plant evolutionary studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Northwest A & F University - Natural Science Edition is the property of Editorial Department of Journal of Northwest A&F University (Natural Science Edition) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The use of high‐performing varieties could contribute to increase food legume production and meet the population demand. However, the long process of conventional breeding is a serious limitation that needs further acceleration of genetic improvement. Speed breeding based on extended photoperiod is one of the techniques that allows rapid generation turnover by accelerating the plant life cycle. The present study focused on optimizing the duration of extended photoperiod for lentil, chickpea and faba bean in a growth chamber with light‐emitting diode (LED) light sources. Significant differences in growth rate, biomass production, phenology, physiology, plant injury and yield components were observed depending on light phase durations (22, 18 and 14 h). Twenty‐two hours of light resulted in earlier flowering and maturity, but higher stress symptoms than the other two light treatments. However, vegetative development was almost normal with limited stress under 14 h of light, but late flowering and maturity. Interestingly, good plant establishment with limited stress and shorter vegetative cycle was observed under 18 h of light. Therefore, a photoperiod of 18 h of light/6 h of darkness could be advised for a rapid breeding protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clamor for agricultural resources is being pushed up by global climatic change and population growth. Such consequences are huge challenges to food security, wreaking havoc on the agroecosystem and causing biotic and abiotic stresses in plants, which in turn cause metabolic and physiological problems. Food legume crops contribute to food security in underdeveloped countries by playing an essential role in conservation farming methods. Drought has, nevertheless, exhibited a negative impact on productivity in many parts of the world. While water shortage is a significant abiotic barrier to legume crop output, drought impacts differ depending on drought timing, agro-climatic area, soil texture, and legume species. To resolve these concerns, we gathered data from the recent publications that revealed drought-induced changes in the production of monoculture legumes in field circumstances and examined it using meta-analysis approaches. Research findings revealed that the water cut’s quantity was strongly associated with a decrease in yield. However, the magnitude of the effect differed depending on the phenological stage of the drought and legume species. The legumes such as groundnut and lentil exhibited the lowest yield reductions (31.2% and 19.6% for groundnut and lentil, accordingly), however, the biggest yield drop (39.8%) facing the maximum water reduction was for faba bean.

Copyright of Acta Agronomica Sinica is the property of Crop Science Society of China and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Paleogenomics focuses on the recovery, manipulation, and analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA) from historical or long-dead organisms to reconstruct and analyze their genomes. The aDNA is commonly obtained from remains found in paleontological and archaeological sites, conserved in museums, and in other archival collections. Herbarium collections represent a great source of phenotypic and genotypic information, and their exploitation has allowed for inference and clarification of previously unsolved taxonomic and systematic relationships. Moreover, herbarium specimens offered a new source for studying phenological traits in plants and for disentangling biogeography and evolutionary scenarios of species. More recently, advances in molecular technologies went in parallel with the decreasing costs of next-generation sequencing (NGS) approaches, which paved the way to the utilization of aDNA for whole-genome studies. Although many studies have been carried out combining modern analytic techniques and ancient samples, such as herbarium specimens, this research field is still relatively unexplored due to the need for improving strategies for aDNA manipulation and exploitation from ancient samples. The higher susceptibility of aDNA to degradation and contamination during herbarium conservation and manipulation and the occurrence of biochemical postmortem damage can result in a more challenging reconstruction of the original DNA sequence. Here, we review the methodological approaches that have been developed for the exploitation of historical herbarium plant materials, such as best practices for aDNA extraction, amplification, and genotyping. We also focus on some strategies to overcome the main problems related to the utilization of herbarium specimens for their exploitation in plant evolutionary studies.

Advances in crop breeding techniques and economic evaluation are critical to ensuring and improving crop yields and sustainable development. Based on the provincial data on food legumes breeding (FLB) in China from 2001 to 2020, the research and development (R&D) expenditure distribution, FLB contribution rate, and R&D expenditure on FLB were estimated. The economic benefits of output per unit area and R&D expenses were evaluated, and relevant policy suggestions were put forward. The study found that: (i) the R&D expenditure on FLB's showed a significant upward trend, and the development can be divided into a starting, stable, and rapid growth period. There were significant differences in R&D expenditures across eight provinces of China with relatively high R&D expenditures for FLB; (ii) the R&D expenditure on FLB had a significant lag in the improvement of per mu yield (1 mu = 0.067 hectares). For every 10,000 yuan increase in R&D funding for FLB, the yield per mu will increase by 0.145 kg/mu in the next five years, and the regional spillover effect of breeding costs is significant; and (iii) the marginal revenue of R&D expenditures FLB from 2008 to 2020 is 34.91 yuan, that is, every 1 yuan invested in breeding R&D can bring a short-term marginal revenue of 34.91 yuan and a long-term marginal revenue of 337.23 yuan. Based on the above analysis, some recommendations were proposed and discussed, including further increasing the R&D investment of FLB, strengthening industry–university–research cooperation in breeding, improving the breeding research system, and promoting the multi-dimensional development of FLB industry–university–research services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clamor for agricultural resources is being pushed up by global climatic change and population growth. Such consequences are huge challenges to food security, wreaking havoc on the agroecosystem and causing biotic and abiotic stresses in plants, which in turn cause metabolic and physiological problems. Food legume crops contribute to food security in underdeveloped countries by playing an essential role in conservation farming methods. Drought has, nevertheless, exhibited a negative impact on productivity in many parts of the world. While water shortage is a significant abiotic barrier to legume crop output, drought impacts differ depending on drought timing, agro-climatic area, soil texture, and legume species. To resolve these concerns, we gathered data from the recent publications that revealed drought-induced changes in the production of monoculture legumes in field circumstances and examined it using meta-analysis approaches. Research findings revealed that the water cut's quantity was strongly associated with a decrease in yield. However, the magnitude of the effect differed depending on the phenological stage of the drought and legume species. The legumes such as groundnut and lentil exhibited the lowest yield reductions (31.2% and 19.6% for groundnut and lentil, accordingly), however, the biggest yield drop (39.8%) facing the maximum water reduction was for faba bean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in crop breeding techniques and economic evaluation are critical to ensuring and improving crop yields and sustainable development. Based on the provincial data on food legumes breeding (FLB) in China from 2001 to 2020, the research and development (R&D) expenditure distribution, FLB contribution rate, and R&D expenditure on FLB were estimated. The economic benefits of output per unit area and R&D expenses were evaluated, and relevant policy suggestions were put forward. The study found that: (i) the R&D expenditure on FLB’s showed a significant upward trend, and the development can be divided into a starting, stable, and rapid growth period. There were significant differences in R&D expenditures across eight provinces of China with relatively high R&D expenditures for FLB; (ii) the R&D expenditure on FLB had a significant lag in the improvement of per mu yield (1 mu = 0.067 hectares). For every 10,000 yuan increase in R&D funding for FLB, the yield per mu will increase by 0.145 kg/mu in the next five years, and the regional spillover effect of breeding costs is significant; and (iii) the marginal revenue of R&D expenditures FLB from 2008 to 2020 is 34.91 yuan, that is, every 1 yuan invested in breeding R&D can bring a short-term marginal revenue of 34.91 yuan and a long-term marginal revenue of 337.23 yuan. Based on the above analysis, some recommendations were proposed and discussed, including further increasing the R&D investment of FLB, strengthening industry–university–research cooperation in breeding, improving the breeding research system, and promoting the multi-dimensional development of FLB industry–university–research services.

Food legumes are important for defeating malnutrition and sustaining agri-food systems globally. Breeding efforts in legume crops have been largely confined to the exploitation of genetic variation available within the primary genepool, resulting in narrow genetic base. Introgression as a breeding scheme has been remarkably successful for an array of inheritance and molecular studies in food legumes. Crop wild relatives (CWRs), landraces, and exotic germplasm offer great potential for introgression of novel variation not only to widen the genetic base of the elite genepool for continuous incremental gains over breeding cycles but also to discover the cryptic genetic variation hitherto unexpressed. CWRs also harbor positive quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for improving agronomic traits. However, for transferring polygenic traits, “specialized population concept” has been advocated for transferring QTLs from CWR into elite backgrounds. Recently, introgression breeding has been successful in developing improved cultivars in chickpea (Cicer arietinum), pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan), peanut (Arachis hypogaea), lentil (Lens culinaris), mungbean (Vigna radiata), urdbean (Vigna mungo), and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). Successful examples indicated that the usable genetic variation could be exploited by unleashing new gene recombination and hidden variability even in late filial generations. In mungbean alone, distant hybridization has been deployed to develop seven improved commercial cultivars, whereas in urdbean, three such cultivars have been reported. Similarly, in chickpea, three superior cultivars have been developed from crosses between C. arietinum and Cicer reticulatum. Pigeonpea has benefited the most where different cytoplasmic male sterility genes have been transferred from CWRs, whereas a number of disease-resistant germplasm have also been developed in Phaseolus. As vertical gene transfer has resulted in most of the useful gene introgressions of practical importance in food legumes, the horizontal gene transfer through transgenic technology, somatic hybridization, and, more recently, intragenesis also offer promise. The gains through introgression breeding are significant and underline the need of bringing it in the purview of mainstream breeding while deploying tools and techniques to increase the recombination rate in wide crosses and reduce the linkage drag. The resurgence of interest in introgression breeding needs to be capitalized for development of commercial food legume cultivars.

The study focused on factors affecting the commercialization of food legumes - cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata), bambara groundnuts (Vigna subterranea), groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea) and soybeans (Glycine max) in two departments (Benoué and Mayo-Louti) of the North Region of Cameroon. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect data. Qualitative methods involved focus group discussions and direct observations. A structured interview guide was administered in major peri-urban and urban markets to get supportive quantitative data. The respondents were selected using purposive sampling technique. A content analysis was conducted and quantitative data was analyzed with the aid of XLSTAT 2007 software and Excel. A cross-section of the age and gender population was involved in the marketing of food legumes. Women constituted more than 80% in the retail sector on peri-urban markets. The study found that 100% of the vendors had never got any form of training on business management before engaging into the sector. Socio-cultural factors were determinant factors that impacted negatively in promoting an entrepreneurial culture among women. The marginalization of women, the restriction of land ownership by traditional tenure and poor distribution of land for agriculture were some of the main constraints faced by women. The impediments of women's empowerment include their lack of access to the decisionmaking process, low participation in local governance and limited access to technology inputs and credit. Traditional practices forbid women and girls to have or manage large amounts of money. Such restrictions have serious consequences on agricultural production. Instead of exploiting the productive capacity of women at all levels, including food production and transformation, some of the traditions simply stifle their potential energies. In addition to socio-cultural factors, major bottlenecks faced in the production and commercialisation of food legumes includes social structural and institutional, agronomic, natural (biotic and abiotic stress) and climatic factors. Development of intervention strategies through exogenous innovation techniques might act as an incentive for smallholder farmers to invest more of their land and energy in cultivation of food legumes. More attention should be focused on market research and development with crop improvement programmes that are economically profitable, if food legumes are to continue making a greater contribution to the household income, nutrition and sustainable development in North Cameroon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food legumes are important for defeating malnutrition and sustaining agri-food systems globally. Breeding efforts in legume crops have been largely confined to the exploitation of genetic variation available within the primary genepool, resulting in narrow genetic base. Introgression as a breeding scheme has been remarkably successful for an array of inheritance and molecular studies in food legumes. Crop wild relatives (CWRs), landraces, and exotic germplasm offer great potential for introgression of novel variation not only to widen the genetic base of the elite genepool for continuous incremental gains over breeding cycles but also to discover the cryptic genetic variation hitherto unexpressed. CWRs also harbor positive quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for improving agronomic traits. However, for transferring polygenic traits, "specialized population concept" has been advocated for transferring QTLs from CWR into elite backgrounds. Recently, introgression breeding has been successful in developing improved cultivars in chickpea (Cicer arietinum), pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan), peanut (Arachis hypogaea), lentil (Lens culinaris), mungbean (Vigna radiata), urdbean (Vigna mungo), and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). Successful examples indicated that the usable genetic variation could be exploited by unleashing new gene recombination and hidden variability even in late filial generations. In mungbean alone, distant hybridization has been deployed to develop seven improved commercial cultivars, whereas in urdbean, three such cultivars have been reported. Similarly, in chickpea, three superior cultivars have been developed from crosses between C. arietinum and Cicer reticulatum. Pigeonpea has benefited the most where different cytoplasmic male sterility genes have been transferred from CWRs, whereas a number of disease-resistant germplasm have also been developed in Phaseolus. As vertical gene transfer has resulted in most of the useful gene introgressions of practical importance in food legumes, the horizontal gene transfer through transgenic technology, somatic hybridization, and, more recently, intragenesis also offer promise. The gains through introgression breeding are significant and underline the need of bringing it in the purview of mainstream breeding while deploying tools and techniques to increase the recombination rate in wide crosses and reduce the linkage drag. The resurgence of interest in introgression breeding needs to be capitalized for development of commercial food legume cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food legumes comprise all legumes grown for human food in China as either dry grains or vegetables, except for soybean and groundnut. China has a vast territory with complex ecological conditions. Rotation, intercropping, and mixed cropping involving pulses are normal cropping systems in China. Whether indigenous or introduced crops, pulses have played an important role in Chinese cropping systems and made an important contribution to food resources for humans since ancient times. The six major food legume species (pea, faba bean, common bean, mung bean, adzuki bean, and cowpea) are the most well-known pulses in China, as well as those with more local distributions; runner bean, lima bean, chickpea, lentil, grass pea, lupine, rice bean, black gram, hyacinth bean, pigeon pea, velvet bean, winged bean, guar bean, sword bean, and jack bean. China has remained the world's leading producer of peas, faba beans, mung beans, and adzuki beans in recent decades, as documented by FAO statistics and China Agriculture Statistical Reports. The demand for food legumes as a healthy food will markedly increase with the improvement of living standards in China. Since China officially joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, imports of pea from Canada and Australia have rapidly increased, resulting in reduced prices for dry pea and other food legumes. With reduced profits for food legume crops, their sowing area and total production has decreased within China. At the same time, the rising consumer demand for vegetable food legumes as a healthy food has led to attractive market prices and sharp production increases in China. Vegetable food legumes have reduced growing duration and enable flexibility in cropping systems. In the future, production of dry food legumes will range from stable to slowly decreasing, while production of vegetable food legumes will continue to increase.

Insects are one of the major reasons for post-harvest losses in stored food legumes. Real time detection at an early stage of insect infestation can overcome the foremost problem of infestation. Acoustic detection method detects the hidden as well as moving insects by amplifying and filtering their motility and feeding sounds. Crawling and feeding activities of two insects Callosobruchus chinensis and Callosobruchus maculatus in chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and green gram (Vigna radiata) were detected by using an insect detection probe placed in an acoustically insulated bin. Temperature and relative humidity were also measured through sensors mounted on the same probe. Captured sounds were pre-screened and analysed by using sound analysis software. Significant differences were found between the amplitude of two insects in both the legumes. Amplitudes of Callosobruchus chinensis were 79.32 dB and 84.01 dB for 59 ms duration in chickpea and green gram, respectively, whereas, the amplitude of Callosobruchus maculatus was 97.65 dB and 95.53 dB for 68 ms in chickpea and green gram, respectively. The detection range of the acoustic sensor was 300 mm omnidirectional. Formants (F1, F2, F3 and F4), formant bandwidth (FBW3), frequency and spectral power were observed as principal components for the detection of insects' infestation (C. chinensis and C. maculatus) in bulk stored food legumes (chickpea and green gram). Formants of sound spectra found a specific role in the discrimination of insect and background noise. The findings of this study elucidated that acoustic detection method will provide rapid and non-destructive detection of infestation in bulk stored food legumes. • Biacoustic detection is useful in detection of infestation in stored food legumes. • Omnidirectional detection range of acoustic sensors was 300 mm. • Spectrogram analysis was important in identification of insects sound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Association panels represent a useful tool for quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping and pre-breeding. In this study, we report on the development of a European and Mediterranean chickpea association panel as a useful tool for gene discovery and breeding. Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the most important food legumes worldwide and a key crop in the Mediterranean environments. The selection of genotypes followed criteria aimed to build a set of materials representative of the genetic diversity of chickpea germplasm focusing on the European and Mediterranean environments, which have largely been ignored to date. This tool can help breeders to develop novel varieties adapted to European and Mediterranean agro-ecosystems. Initially, 1931 chickpea accessions were phenotypically evaluated in a field trial in central Italy. From these, an association panel composed by 480 genotypes derived from single-seed descent was identified and phenotypically evaluated. Current and future phenotypic data combined with the genotypic characterization of the association panel will allow to dissect the genetic architecture of important adaptive and quality traits and accelerate breeding. This information can be used to predict phenotypes of unexploited chickpea genetic resources available in genebanks for breeding.

Inflammation is the first biological response of the immune system to infection, injury or irritation. Evidence suggests that the anti-inflammatory effect is mediated through the regulation of various inflammatory cytokines, such as nitric oxide, interleukins, tumor necrosis factor alpha-α, interferon gamma-γ as well as noncytokine mediator, prostaglandin E2. Fruits, vegetables, and food legumes contain high levels of phytochemicals that show anti-inflammatory effect, but their mechanisms of actions have not been completely identified. The aim of this paper was to summarize the recent investigations and findings regarding in vitro and animal model studies on the anti-inflammatory effects of fruits, vegetables, and food legumes. Specific cytokines released for specific type of physiological event might shed some light on the specific use of each source of phytochemicals that can benefit to counter the inflammatory response. As natural modulators of proinflammatory gene expressions, phytochemical from fruits, vegetables, and food legumes could be incorporated into novel bioactive anti-inflammatory formulations of various nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals. Finally, these phytochemicals are discussed as the natural promotion strategy for the improvement of human health status. The phenolics and triterpenoids in fruits and vegetables showed higher anti-inflammatory activity than other compounds. In food legumes, lectins and peptides had anti-inflammatory activity in most cases. However, there are lack of human study data on the anti-inflammatory activity of phytochemicals from fruits, vegetables, and food legumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ambient temperatures are predicted to rise in the future owing to several reasons associated with global climate changes. These temperature increases can result in heat stress- a severe threat to crop production in most countries. Legumes are well-known for their impact on agricultural sustainability as well as their nutritional and health benefits. Heat stress imposes challenges for legume crops and has deleterious effects on the morphology, physiology, and reproductive growth of plants. High-temperature stress at the time of the reproductive stage is becoming a severe limitation for production of grain legumes as their cultivation expands to warmer environments and temperature variability increases due to climate change. The reproductive period is vital in the life cycle of all plants and is susceptible to high-temperature stress as various metabolic processes are adversely impacted during this phase, which reduces crop yield. Food legumes exposed to high-temperature stress during reproduction show flower abortion, pollen and ovule infertility, impaired fertilization, and reduced seed filling, leading to smaller seeds and poor yields. Through various breeding techniques, heat tolerance in major legumes can be enhanced to improve performance in the field. Omics approaches unravel different mechanisms underlying thermotolerance, which is imperative to understand the processes of molecular responses toward high-temperature stress.

Ambient temperatures are predicted to rise in the future owing to several reasons associated with global climate changes. These temperature increases can result in heat stress- a severe threat to crop production in most countries. Legumes are wellknown for their impact on agricultural sustainability as well as their nutritional and health benefits. Heat stress imposes challenges for legume crops and has deleterious effects on the morphology, physiology, and reproductive growth of plants. High-temperature stress at the time of the reproductive stage is becoming a severe limitation for production of grain legumes as their cultivation expands to warmer environments and temperature variability increases due to climate change. The reproductive period is vital in the life cycle of all plants and is susceptible to high-temperature stress as various metabolic processes are adversely impacted during this phase, which reduces crop yield. Food legumes exposed to high-temperature stress during reproduction show flower abortion, pollen and ovule infertility, impaired fertilization, and reduced seed filling, leading to smaller seeds and poor yields. Through various breeding techniques, heat tolerance in major legumes can be enhanced to improve performance in the field. Omics approaches unravel different mechanisms underlying thermotolerance, which is imperative to understand the processes of molecular responses toward high-temperature stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of the various environmental stresses that a plant can experience, temperature has the widest and most far-reaching effects on legumes. Temperature extremes, both high (heat stress) and low (cold stress), are injurious to plants at all stages of development, resulting in severe loss of productivity. In response to unfavorable temperatures, plant biomolecules such as stress proteins, enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants, organic osmolytes and phytohormones come into play, usually, as a part of the plant defense mechanisms. The accumulation of these molecules, which may be useful as metabolic indicators of stress tolerance, depend on the plant species exposed to the temperature stress, its intensity and duration. Some of these molecules such as osmolytes, non-enzymatic antioxidants and phytohormones may be supplied exogenously to improve temperature stress tolerance. Legumes show varying degrees of sensitivity to high and low-temperature stresses, which reduces their potential performance at various developmental stages. To address the ever-fluctuating temperature extremes that various legumes are being constantly exposed, efforts are being made to develop tolerant plant varieties via conventional breeding methods as well as more recent molecular breeding techniques. In this review, we describe the progress made towards the adverse effects of abnormal temperatures on various growth stages in legumes and propose appropriate strategies to resolve these effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of embryos rescue in food legumes in general and in the genus Phaseolus in particular. Genetic improvement of Phaseolus vulgaris L. by interspecific hybridization with Phaseolus coccineus L. and Phaseolus polyanthus Greenm., used as female parents, often gives rise to embryo abortion at globular developmental stage. In vitro culture of embryos at cotyledonary and torpedo shaped stages, leads to hybrid plants, but with very low percentages of success. Several investigations of in vitro culture in selfed genotypes of Phaseolus and from embryos at globular or young heart shaped stages have allowed to regenerate some young plantlets. However, problems of rooting and stopping of growth restrict the number of developing plantlets. Analysis of the results achieved from interspecific embryo rescue in others food legumes of the genus Lupinus, Cajanus, Cicer, Lens and Trifolium, helped to identify some solutions to resolve incompatibility problems in Phaseolus.

Legume cultivation is strongly hampered by the occurrence of Ascochyta blights. Strategies of control have been developed but only marginal successes have been achieved. In the present paper we present and re-evaluate some recent developments in control in the light of recent developments in crop breeding and molecular genetics. The current focus in applied breeding is leveraging biotechnological tools to develop more and better markers to speed up the delivery of improved cultivars to the farmer. To date, however, progress in marker development and delivery of useful markers has been slow. The application of knowledge gained from basic genomic research and genetic engineering will contribute to more rapid crop legume improvement for resistance against Ascochyta blight.

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Total phenolic and saponin components were extracted from 13 commonly consumed food legumes produced in China, and then a systematic comparative study was conducted to investigate their inhibitory effects against digestive enzymes, pancreatic lipase, andα-glycosidase, respectively. Saponin extract (1 mg/mL) from black bean exhibited the highest (41.8%) pancreatic lipase inhibitory effect, followed by phenolic extract from adzuki bean with 36.3%, saponin extract from yellow soybean with 34.1%, saponin extract from pinto bean with 32.6%. It is worth mentioning that both phenolic and saponin extracts from the mung bean, adzuki bean, lima bean, and pinto bean exhibited inhibitory effects against pancreatic lipase. Among four beans, the adzuki bean had the highest inhibitory effects against pancreatic lipase activity. In theα-glycosidase assays, phenolic extracts exhibited strongerα-glycosidase inhibitory activity than that of saponins in general. Phenolic extracts of the adzuki bean, black bean, fava bean, lentil, rock bean, and red kidney bean inhibited over 80% ofα-glycosidase activity at the concentration of 1 mg/mL. Both phenolic and saponin extracts from the adzuki bean and rock bean exhibited inhibitory effects againstα-glycosidase. The results indicate that adzuki bean is one of the best target beans for further study on their anti-obesity and anti-diabetes effects via cell and animal models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND As probiotics, soy oligosaccharides have become popular as healthy foods to reduce disease risk. However, comprehensive information about oligosaccharides in different food legumes is limited. RESULTS In this study, eight oligosaccharides were well detected and quantified in different varieties of eight legume species using high-resolution mass spectrometry. It was determined that species could be distinguished by total content of oligosaccharides and their distribution modes. Among the studied species, Vigna unguiculata is a better resource of non-digestible oligosaccharides, while Vicia faba and black soybean ( Glycine max) are at a disadvantage. Normally, stachyose predominates in non-digestible oligosaccharides, except in mung bean and broad bean, where verbascose predominates. For mung bean and green soybean, the seed coat should be taken into account for oligosaccharide consumption. The developed high-resolution mass spectrometry method greatly simplified the sample preparation process and permitted the identification of oligosaccharides without reference compounds. CONCLUSION This work involved extensive sample collecting and provided useful information for consumers. The developed method may be useful for rapid quantification of oligosaccharides in related foods. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential of feed-food double-cropping was evaluated at Ginchi, Ethiopia, for two years with the objective of evaluating herbage yields of fodder crops and the subsequent effects on grain yields of chickpea and grass pea. Early maturing oat (79Ab382 (TX) (80SA95); 79CP84 (Coker SR. res) 80SA130; SRCP X 80Ab2806; C7512/SRCP X 80Ab 2252 and CO X SRCP X 80Ab2291) and common vetch (Acc. No. 2490; Acc. No. 2742) were selected and planted on lands reserved for chickpea/grass pea at the start of the main rainy season. Following forage harvest, chickpea and grass pea were planted on all plots and control fallow plot (farmers’ practice). A randomized complete block design with three replicates was used. Vigor (potential growth), plant height, herbage yield of forage crops, and grain yields of chickpea and grass pea varied across years. Higher average herbage yield (3.36 t ha–1) was obtained from oat–common vetch mixtures compared to a fallow system (1.11 t ha–1). Moreover, grain yields of chickpea and grass pea grown as a double-crop following oat–common vetch were more or less similar to yields obtained under a fallow system except in the case of chickpea following T6 (oat SRCP X 80Ab2806 ×Viciasativaacc. No. 2742). From this study, it was concluded that double-cropping of early-maturing, improved forage crops and residual soil moisture-based planting of chickpea and grass pea could improve feed availability, and labor and land productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is a lack of knowledge on the diversity and geographical distribution of less utilized species in agriculture. Breeding programmes of minor crops are very important for increasing the diversity in agriculture and for sustainable agriculture. Input materials in most cases are crop wild relatives of main cultivated forage species like alfalfa, red clover, white clover, etc. Gathering, growing and breeding of crop wild relatives has a long tradition in the Czech Republic. In the workplace in Troubsko it has been done for 60 years. The result of this activity is 21 registered varieties of different minor crops (Trifolium pannonicum, Lablab purpureus, Lathyrus sativus, Trigonella foenum-graecum etc.) and many breeding lines included in the state registration trials (Astragalus cicer, Trifolium alpestre, Galega orientalis etc.). One of the results of breeding programme is a unique variety Trifolium pratense x Trifolium medium (Trifolium x permixtum) - PRAMEDI. The variety was bred as interspecific hybridisation of the red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) cv. Tatra (2n = 4x = 28) and zigzag clover (T. medium L.) (2n = 8x = 64). It is perennial legume species, which is suitable as substitution of the red clover, especially in dry and warm regions. The height, flowering time and quality are comparable to standard tetraploid red clover varieties. By the plants short underground rhizomes are frequent and the plants have better persistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Both lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) and grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) in the family Fabaceae are two important cool-season food legumes, often experiencing water stress conditions during growth and maturity. Objective: The present study was undertaken to ascertain the response of these two crops under different water stress regimes. Materials and Methods: Different morpho-physiological and biochemical parameters were studied in a pot experiment under controlled environmental conditions. Along with control (proper irrigation, 0 stress), three sets of plants were subjected to mild (6 d), moderate (13 d) and severe (20 d) water stress by withholding irrigation at the appropriate time. Results: Compared with control, plant growth traits and seed yield components reduced significantly in both crops with increasing period of water stress, resulting in lowering of dry mass with more severe effect on lentil compared with grass pea. Foliar Relative Water Content (RWC) (%), K+/Na+ ratio, chlorophyll (chl) a, chl a/b ratio, stomatal conductance and net photosynthetic rate declined considerably in both crops under water stress. Leaf-free proline level increased significantly in both crops, but it decreased markedly in nodules of lentil and remained unchanged in grass pea. Nodulation was also affected due to water stress. The impairment in growth traits and physio-biochemical parameters under water stress was manifested in reduction of drought tolerance efficiency of both crops. Conclusion: Impact of water stress was more severe on lentil compared with grass pea, and modulation of growth traits signified necessity of a detailed strategy in breeding of food legumes under water stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]