Legumes as a Model Plant Family. Genomics for Food and Feed Report of the Cross-Legume Advances through Genomics Conference1

摘要

On December 14 to 15, 2004, some 50 legume researchers and funding agency representatives (the latter as observers) met in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to develop a plan for cross-legume genomics research. This conference was one of the outcomes of the Legume Crops Genome Initiative (LCGI), an organization bringing together the major U.S. legume commodity associations and their respective research communities. The commodities include alfalfa (Medicago sativa), common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), the cool-season food legumes (pea [Pisum sativum], lentil [Lens culinaris Med.], and chickpea [Cicer arietinum]), peanut (Arachis hypogaea), and soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.). In recent years, legume genomics has been focused primarily on the development of resources and information of two species considered to be model legumes (Medicago truncatula Gaertner and Lotus japonicus [Regel] K. Larsen) and soybean, the legume of principal economic importance in the United States (VandenBosch and Stacey, 2003). The development of similar genomics research in other legumes has lagged, which has limited the overall impact of genomics of the three reference species. Conversely, these three reference species could benefit from the sharing of biological information that already exists in other legume crops.