Legumes: Domestication, Plant–Microbe Interaction, Stress Resistance and Breeding

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Physiology and Crop Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2024) | Viewed by 3510

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
College of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Interests: plant genetic resources and diversity; molecular breeding; adaptation to abiotic stress
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Interests: soybean genetics and breeding; disease gene discovery and function

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The legume family is one of the largest and most diverse group of plants, and legume crops, including soybean, beans, and other pulses, are major sources of human food and animal feed with rich nutrition today. They have also played a key role in sustainable agriculture systems, with their biological nitrogen fixation function, since ancient times. Moreover, grain legumes were domesticated in parallel with cereals in several regions of the world and formed the economic basis of early farming cultures, and great diversity in some legume crops has been retained since their domestication. However, their adaptation roles and utilization potentials are not clear in the changing climate and soil microbial environment. On the other hand, a variety of pathogens and stress factors severely affect the growth and development of leguminous plants, thereby affecting yield and quality. Hence, this Special Issue of Plants will connect plant diversity and stress resistance with the fields of genetics and breeding to deepen the knowledge of plant adaptation to biotic and abiotic stress, and discover the genes that can improve host tolerance for breeding utilization. The scope includes the following:

  • Pheno-genotypic changes during the evolution and domestication of legumes.
  • Morpho-physiological features of legumes under stress condition.
  • Comparative genomics of legume plants.
  • Legume defense responses to pathogen infection.
  • Adaptation mechanisms to abiotic stress.
  • Beneficial soil microbes and plant stress resistance.
  • Resistance gene discovery and breeding utilization.
  • New breeding techniques for legume resistance breeding.

Prof. Dr. Tuanjie Zhao
Dr. Na Guo
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • legume plants
  • domestication
  • defense against pathogens
  • rhizobacteria
  • adaptation to abiotic stress
  • resistance breeding

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 7885 KiB  
Article
Metabolic Aspects of Lentil–Fusarium Interactions
by Chrysanthi Foti, Antonios Zambounis, Evmorfia P. Bataka, Chrysanthi Kalloniati, Evangelia Panagiotaki, Christos T. Nakas, Emmanouil Flemetakis and Ourania I. Pavli
Plants 2024, 13(14), 2005; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13142005 - 22 Jul 2024
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Abstract
Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lentis (Fol) is considered the most destructive disease for lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) worldwide. Despite the extensive studies elucidating plants’ metabolic response to fungal agents, there is a knowledge gap in the biochemical mechanisms governing Fol [...] Read more.
Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lentis (Fol) is considered the most destructive disease for lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) worldwide. Despite the extensive studies elucidating plants’ metabolic response to fungal agents, there is a knowledge gap in the biochemical mechanisms governing Fol-resistance in lentil. Τhis study aimed at comparatively evaluating the metabolic response of two lentil genotypes, with contrasting phenotypes for Fol-resistance, to Fol-inoculation. Apart from gaining insights into the metabolic reprogramming in response to Fol-inoculation, the study focused on discovering novel biomarkers to improve early selection for Fol-resistance. GC-MS-mediated metabolic profiling of leaves and roots was employed to monitor changes across genotypes and treatments as well as their interaction. In total, the analysis yielded 178 quantifiable compounds, of which the vast majority belonged to the groups of carbohydrates, amino acids, polyols and organic acids. Despite the magnitude of metabolic fluctuations in response to Fol-inoculation in both genotypes under study, significant alterations were noted in the content of 18 compounds, of which 10 and 8 compounds referred to roots and shoots, respectively. Overall data underline the crucial contribution of palatinitol and L-proline in the metabolic response of roots and shoots, respectively, thus offering possibilities for their exploitation as metabolic biomarkers for Fol-resistance in lentil. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first metabolomics-based approach to unraveling the effects of Fol-inoculation on lentil’s metabolome, thus providing crucial information related to key aspects of lentil–Fol interaction. Future investigations in metabolic aspects of lentil–Fol interactions will undoubtedly revolutionize the search for metabolites underlying Fol-resistance, thus paving the way towards upgrading breeding efforts to combat fusarium wilt in lentil. Full article
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18 pages, 3041 KiB  
Article
Identification and Genetic Dissection of Resistance to Red Crown Rot Disease in a Diverse Soybean Germplasm Population
by Augustine Antwi-Boasiako, Shihao Jia, Jiale Liu, Na Guo, Changjun Chen, Benjamin Karikari, Jianying Feng and Tuanjie Zhao
Plants 2024, 13(7), 940; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13070940 - 24 Mar 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1980
Abstract
Red crown rot (RCR) disease caused by Calonectria ilicicola negatively impacts soybean yield and quality. Unfortunately, the knowledge of the genetic architecture of RCR resistance in soybeans is limited. In this study, 299 diverse soybean accessions were used to explore their genetic diversity [...] Read more.
Red crown rot (RCR) disease caused by Calonectria ilicicola negatively impacts soybean yield and quality. Unfortunately, the knowledge of the genetic architecture of RCR resistance in soybeans is limited. In this study, 299 diverse soybean accessions were used to explore their genetic diversity and resistance to RCR, and to mine for candidate genes via emergence rate (ER), survival rate (SR), and disease severity (DS) by a multi-locus random-SNP-effect mixed linear model of GWAS. All accessions had brown necrotic lesions on the primary root, with five genotypes identified as resistant. Nine single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were detected to underlie RCR response (ER, SR, and DS). Two SNPs colocalized with at least two traits to form a haplotype block which possessed nine genes. Based on their annotation and the qRT-PCR, three genes, namely Glyma.08G074600, Glyma.08G074700, and Glyma.12G043600, are suggested to modulate soybean resistance to RCR. The findings from this study could serve as the foundation for breeding RCR-tolerant soybean varieties, and the candidate genes could be validated to deepen our understanding of soybean response to RCR. Full article
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