Economically, legumes (Fabaceae) represent the second most important family of crop plants after the grass family, Poaceae. Grain legumes account for 27% of world crop production and provide 33% of the dietary protein consumed by humans, while pasture and forage legumes provide vital part of animal feed. Fabaceae, the third largest family of flowering plants, has traditionally been divided into the following three subfamilies: Caesalpinioideae, Mimosoideae, and Papilionoideae, all together with 800 genera and 20,000 species. The latter subfamily contains most of the major cultivated food and feed crops. Among the grain legumes are some of mankind's earliest crop plants, whose domestication parallelled that of cereals: Soybean in China; faba bean, lentil, chickpea and pea in the Fertile Crescent of the Near East; cowpeas and bambara groundnut in Africa; soybean and mungbeans in East Asia; pigeonpea and the grams in South Asia; and common bean, lima bean, scarlet runner bean, tepary bean and lupin in Central and South America. The importance of legumes is evidenced by their high representation in ex situ germplasm collections, with more than 1,000,000 accessions worldwide. A detailed knowledge of the phylogenetic relationships of the Fabaceae is essential for understanding the origin and diversification of this economically and ecologically important family of angiosperms. This review aims to combine the phylogenetic and genetic diversity approaches to better illustrate the origin, domestication history and preserved germplasm of major legume crops from 13 genera of six tribes and to indicate further potential both for science and agriculture.

/pdf/legume-crops-phylogeny-and-genetic-diversity-for-science-and-1lvkdujjsr.pdf

Legume Crops Phylogeny and Genetic Diversity for Science and Breeding

http://gw-vir.nw.ru/glycine/diversity.pdf

Diversity maintenance and use of Vicia faba L. genetic resources

The ecogeographical history of Cardueae-Centaureinae (Asteraceae) in the Mediterranean is discussed on the background of the geological history of the region. Two main phases of radiation are postulated. The first one separated the basal groups of the subtribe (Klasea group, Rhaponticoides/Cheirolophus group, Rhaponticum group, Amberboa group, Psephellus, and Plectocephalus). This happened during late Oligocene and Miocene. The major modern or derived clades (Centaurea, Colymbada group, Cyanus and Carthamus/Carduncellus group) may have differentiated around the transition from Pliocene to Pleistocene. Aridisation favoured the development of biennial and annual species independently in different groups. Different modes of evolution are observed in annual and perennial species, reflected by morphology as well as DNA sequences. The myrmekochory syndrome, adaptation to man-made habitats, chromosome and genome evolution, and modes of reproduction receive special attention.

Centaureinae (Asteraceae) in the Mediterranean – history of ecogeographical radiation

Tribe Fabeae comprises about 380 legume species, including some of the most ancient and important crops like lentil, pea, and broad bean. Breeding efforts in legume crops rely on a detailed knowledge of closest wild relatives and geographic origin. Relationships within the tribe, however, are incompletely known and previous molecular results conflicted with the traditional morphology-based classification. Here we analyse the systematics, biogeography, and character evolution in the tribe based on plastid and nuclear DNA sequences. Phylogenetic analyses including c. 70% of the species in the tribe show that the genera Vicia and Lathyrus in their current circumscription are not monophyletic: Pisum and Vavilovia are nested in Lathyrus, the genus Lens is nested in Vicia. A small, well-supported clade including Vicia hirsuta, V. sylvatica, and some Mediterranean endemics, is the sister group to all remaining species in the tribe. Fabeae originated in the East Mediterranean region in the Miocene (23–16 million years ago (Ma)) and spread at least 39 times into Eurasia, seven times to the Americas, twice to tropical Africa and four times to Macaronesia. Broad bean (V. faba) and its sister V. paucijuga originated in Asia and might be sister to V. oroboides. Lentil (Lens culinaris ssp. culinaris) is of Mediterranean origin and together with eight very close relatives forms a clade that is nested in the core Vicia, where it evolved c. 14 Ma. The Pisum clade is nested in Lathyrus in a grade with the Mediterranean L. gloeosperma, L. neurolobus, and L. nissolia. The extinct Azorean endemic V. dennesiana belongs in section Cracca and is nested among Mediterranean species. According to our ancestral character state reconstruction results, ancestors of Fabeae had a basic chromosome number of 2n=14, an annual life form, and evenly hairy, dorsiventrally compressed styles. Fabeae evolved in the Eastern Mediterranean in the middle Miocene and spread from there across Eurasia, into Tropical Africa, and at least seven times to the Americas. The middle-Atlantic islands were colonized four times but apparently did not serve as stepping-stones for Atlantic crossings. Long-distance dispersal events are relatively common in Fabeae (seven per ten million years). Current generic and infrageneric circumscriptions in Fabeae do not reflect monophyletic groups and should be revised. Suggestions for generic level delimitation are offered.

/pdf/systematics-biogeography-and-character-evolution-of-the-5ec21y0rao.pdf

Systematics, biogeography, and character evolution of the legume tribe Fabeae with special focus on the middle-Atlantic island lineages

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is among the oldest crops in the world. Globally, it is third most important feed grain legume. Currently, 58 countries produce this bean on large scale. Probably faba beans are one of the best performing crops under global warming and climate change scenario because of its unique ability to excel under all most all type of climatic conditions coupled with its wide adoptability to range of soil environment. Faba bean being incredible and crop complete food, unfortunately some part of world including India, it is still underutilized crop and not fully exploited so far, though it is seen as an agronomically viable alternative crop to cereal, with a potential of fixing free nitrogen upto 300 kg N ha-1. It is a good source of lysine rich protein and good source of levadopa (L-dopa), a precursor of dopamine, can be potentially used as medicine for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. There is need to improve its anti-nutritional factors to make it more acceptable to other countries. Now Zero tannin contacting varieties are available with greater acceptability to Indians and other countryman as well. An assessment has been made for boosting area production and acceptability with technological backup keeping in view the enormous potential for food and nutritional security.

	Key words: Faba bean, bottleneck, potential crop, uses, agro-technology.

D. Mettin

Papers

Biosystematics of the genus Vicia L