Significance of Genetic Resources of Cool Season Annual Legumes. III. Locally Cultivated and Maintained Crop Landraces.

The genetic resources of legumes (Fabaceae Lindl.) are facing the narrowing the genetic basis of cultivated species, that is bottlenecks of the available gene pools. This is caused mostly by breeding, since it aims at improving yield and quality. The most widely cultivated crops are in a specific danger of losing numerous desirable traits due to a heavy selection pressure preferring usually yield. Using locally cultivated and maintained landraces of the economically most important annual legumes, such as chickpea (Cicer arietinum), lentil (Lens culinaris), grass pea (Lathyrus sativus), white lupin (Lupinus albus) and faba bean (Vicia faba) may assist breeding and various modern crop systems. They preserved numerous desirable traits that may be easily introgressed into modern cultivars and thus improve their performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]