Abstract
Our agricultural system and hence food security is threatened by combination of events, such as increasing population, the impacts of climate change, and the need to a more sustainable development. Evolutionary adaptation may help some species to overcome environmental changes through new selection pressures driven by climate change. However, success of evolutionary adaptation is dependent on various factors, one of which is the extent of genetic variation available within species. Genomic approaches provide an exceptional opportunity to identify genetic variation that can be employed in crop improvement programs. In this review, we illustrate some of the routinely used genomics‐based methods as well as recent breakthroughs, which facilitate assessment of genetic variation and discovery of adaptive genes in legumes. Although additional information is needed, the current utility of selection tools indicate a robust ability to utilize existing variation among legumes to address the challenges of climate uncertainty.
Highlights
MOUSAVI‐DERAZMAHALLEH ET AL.3 | ADAPTATION PRIORITY IN REGIONAL AREAS?The legume family
DNA sequencing technology has made major advances over the last decade, making many of the previous marker‐based systems redundant, and genome sequences are available for many legume species, including cultivated soybean (Schmutz et al, 2009), Medicago truncatula (Young et al, 2011), Lotus japonicus (Sato et al, 2008), common bean (Schmutz et al, 2014; Vlasova et al, 2016), chickpea (Varshney et al, 2013), pigeonpea (Varshney et al, 2012), wild soybean (Kim et al, 2010), narrow‐leafed lupin (Hane et al, 2017), subterranean clover (Hirakawa et al, 2016; Kaur, Bayer, et al, 2017), and diploid ancestors (Arachis duranensis and Arachis ipaensis) of cultivated peanut (Bertioli et al, 2016). The availability of these resources provides an unprecedented opportunity for trait improvement through marker‐assisted evaluation of plant material, identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) and gene discovery, marker‐assisted selection, and genomic selection
Examples of where linkage disequilibrium (LD) mapping has been applied for identification of both novel and previously characterized genes responsible for agronomic traits include genome‐wide association studies (GWAS) in model legume Medicago truncatula (Stanton‐Geddes et al, 2013), common bean (Kamfwa, Cichy, & Kelly, 2015; Moghaddam et al, 2016), and soybean (Contreras‐Soto et al, 2017; Zhou et al, 2015)
Summary
MOUSAVI‐DERAZMAHALLEH ET AL.3 | ADAPTATION PRIORITY IN REGIONAL AREAS?The legume family Preserving wild plant populations in their natural habitat in situ will conserve diversity, and ensures the extension of evolutionary processes that could lead to adaptive traits and new genetic and genotypic diversity for a wide range of species (Hawkes, 1991; National Research Council, 1993).
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