Europe’s knowledge
platform for legumes

The purpose of this report is to provide and overview of the Legume Generation innovation communities and to record some insights from their establishment. The overall purpose of the Legume Generation innovation communities is to make the connection between research activity and the breeding process. The idea can be traced back to the observation in the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (Defra, UK) of a serious disconnect between public investment in research that depends on plant breeding for its impact. In the UK then, that disconnect had been increased by the privatisation of the world-renowned Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge in 1987. To address this, Defra diverted some of its funds for project-based research relevant to plant breeding towards the funding of species-specific partnerships between plant breeders and the relevant research base. These were called the Defra Genetic Improvement Networks. Despite relatively modest funding, these new structures had a far-reaching impact on the relationships between research and plant breeding. This experience provided the background to the innovation community concept in Legume Generation.

Soybean is the major crop for high-protein feed and food in Europe, however domestic production is low due to non-adapted varieties for drought events and time to maturity. Especially, drought stress during growing season can cause severe yield loss in soybean. The present work focused on phenotyping of European soybean varieties of maturity groups (MG) 000 – I, grown in Tulln (Austria) under rainfed conditions. Phenotyping traits were visually scored and screened by hyperspectral and thermal imaging (TIR) techniques. Varietal differences in time to flowering, time to maturity (ttm), plant height, stomatal density, yield, 16 hyperspectral reflectance indices and canopy temperature were examined. Furthermore, TIR method was evaluated for two daytimes (12:00h, 15:00h) and applied for simplified Crop Water Stress Index (siCWSI). Results showed significant differences in ttm between MG. Plant height showed a positive relationship with ttm, while yield reached an optimum at MG 00. Stomatal density of European soybean varieties was published first time: stomatal density was significantly different and ranges between 203.4 and 322.2 stomata/mm². Soybean of MG 000 showed significant correlation between yield and chlorophyll index, red edge inflection point, water indices WI-1, NWI-2 and NWI-4. Later maturing soybean sets had less relationship between indices and yield. Correlation between siCWSI and morphological traits were higher at 15:00h than at 12:00h. Plant phenotyping is a crucial process to improve genetic material due to drought tolerance and ttm and predicting yield. These findings will contribute to a better understanding of varietal differences in European soybean varieties.

Lupin crops provide nutritious seeds as an excellent source of dietary protein. However, extensive genomic resources are needed for crop improvement, focusing on key traits such as nutritional value and climate resiliency, to ensure global food security based on sustainable and healthy diets for all. Such resources can be derived either from related lupin species or crop wild relatives, which represent a large and untapped source of genetic variation for crop improvement. Here, we report genome assemblies of the cross compatible species Lupinus cosentinii Mediterranean) and its pan-Saharan wild relative L. digitatus, which are well adapted to drought-prone environments and partially domesticated. We show that both species are tetraploids, and their repetitive DNA content differs considerably from that of the main lupin crops L. angustifolius and L. albus. We present the complex evolutionary process within the rough-seeded lupins as a species-based model involving polyploidization and rediploidization. Our data also provide the foundation for a systematic analysis of genomic diversity among lupin species to promote their exploitation for crop improvement and sustainable agriculture