Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) a Crop of Future for Sustainable Agriculture in The Changing Environmental Conditions

Abstract

Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) is an ideal pulse crop for sustainable agriculture due to its superior agronomic traits such as deep penetrating root system, resistance to many biotic and abiotic stresses and rich protein content. Even with these superior agronomic traits, the crop is considered as an orphan due to its lower productivity and presence of neurotoxin, b-N-ozalyl-L-adiamino-propanoic acid (ODAP). By following classical and mutational breeding approaches scientists have developed varieties with lower ODAP (< 0.06 %) and efforts are underway to reduce it to zero. However, till date, there are limited biotechnological research in Lathyrus sativus for targeted crop improvement due to unavailability of genome sequence. The recently published draft genome sequence of European accession (LS007) is an important breakthrough and this would help in developing varieties with lower neuro toxin and higher productivity. In this review, the superior agronomic traits, resilience of the crops to various biotic and abiotic stresses, latest genetic research and biotechnological tools developed in L. sativus, are discussed.