Food legumes are important constituents of sustainable agriculture and have a role in promoting human and animal health, soil amelioration, cropping system diversification and sustenance of rural livelihoods. Legumes are unique owing to their positive impact in agricultural and environmental sustainability. While over two dozen major and minor food legumes are grown commercially in different parts of the world, a great deal of research effort has been dedicated in the past decade towards genetic amelioration of many of legumes, thereby turning them into mainstream crops from so-called “orphan legumes”. Accordingly, increased research efforts have been dedicated to their genetic improvement through gene introgression for plant type restructuring, stress resistance, adaptability, and grain and nutritional quality enhancement. In a few crops such as chickpea, pigeonpea and Vigna, intense varietal improvement programs have been undertaken worldwide. This has led to genetic gains indicated by an increase in the production and productivity of these crops, while in other crops, a vast amount of basic information has been generated which can pave the way for their genetic improvement in an accelerated manner.
Hastening the breeding cycle, targeted gene introgression and efficient selection are the key topics that have remained at the core of faster, precise and target-oriented genetic enhancement of food legumes in the last decade. Simultaneously, increasing resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, augmenting seed size, enhancing nutritional content as well as nitrogen fixing ability have been the key traits targeted by the researchers all over the world in food legume improvement. This Research Topic aims to reports recent developments and innovations in the genetic improvement of pulses, including innovations in breeding methods, alien gene introgression, marker assisted breeding, transgenic technology, speed breeding, association and mapping studies integrating the theoretical, experimental as well as applied aspects.
This Research Topic welcomes the submission of reviews, mini reviews, methods, opinions, and original research manuscripts aiming to address recent development in global efforts towards accelerating genetic gain in pulses by way of, but not limited to:
· Innovative approaches developed/successfully implemented towards development of new plant types or restructuring plant types
· Successful deployment of transgenic technology in development of superior genotypes which have better resistance to biotic and abiotic stress, and superior grain and nutritional quality
· Deployment of marker assisted breeding technology towards development of superior cultivars, NILs, breeding materials.
· Utilization of plant genetic resources and successful gene introgression for key traits through deployment of crop wild relatives, exotic lines and landraces
· New breeding schemes aiming to hasten the breeding cycle and reduce the time duration for development of superior cultivars
· High throughput genotyping and phenotyping approaches leading to precise and faster screening of breeding materials helping in identification of superior plant types.
· Development and deployment of experimental populations towards understanding the basic mechanisms towards genetics of resistance, gene and QTL mapping, association studies
Food legumes are important constituents of sustainable agriculture and have a role in promoting human and animal health, soil amelioration, cropping system diversification and sustenance of rural livelihoods. Legumes are unique owing to their positive impact in agricultural and environmental sustainability. While over two dozen major and minor food legumes are grown commercially in different parts of the world, a great deal of research effort has been dedicated in the past decade towards genetic amelioration of many of legumes, thereby turning them into mainstream crops from so-called “orphan legumes”. Accordingly, increased research efforts have been dedicated to their genetic improvement through gene introgression for plant type restructuring, stress resistance, adaptability, and grain and nutritional quality enhancement. In a few crops such as chickpea, pigeonpea and Vigna, intense varietal improvement programs have been undertaken worldwide. This has led to genetic gains indicated by an increase in the production and productivity of these crops, while in other crops, a vast amount of basic information has been generated which can pave the way for their genetic improvement in an accelerated manner.
Hastening the breeding cycle, targeted gene introgression and efficient selection are the key topics that have remained at the core of faster, precise and target-oriented genetic enhancement of food legumes in the last decade. Simultaneously, increasing resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, augmenting seed size, enhancing nutritional content as well as nitrogen fixing ability have been the key traits targeted by the researchers all over the world in food legume improvement. This Research Topic aims to reports recent developments and innovations in the genetic improvement of pulses, including innovations in breeding methods, alien gene introgression, marker assisted breeding, transgenic technology, speed breeding, association and mapping studies integrating the theoretical, experimental as well as applied aspects.
This Research Topic welcomes the submission of reviews, mini reviews, methods, opinions, and original research manuscripts aiming to address recent development in global efforts towards accelerating genetic gain in pulses by way of, but not limited to:
· Innovative approaches developed/successfully implemented towards development of new plant types or restructuring plant types
· Successful deployment of transgenic technology in development of superior genotypes which have better resistance to biotic and abiotic stress, and superior grain and nutritional quality
· Deployment of marker assisted breeding technology towards development of superior cultivars, NILs, breeding materials.
· Utilization of plant genetic resources and successful gene introgression for key traits through deployment of crop wild relatives, exotic lines and landraces
· New breeding schemes aiming to hasten the breeding cycle and reduce the time duration for development of superior cultivars
· High throughput genotyping and phenotyping approaches leading to precise and faster screening of breeding materials helping in identification of superior plant types.
· Development and deployment of experimental populations towards understanding the basic mechanisms towards genetics of resistance, gene and QTL mapping, association studies
