Mapping and quantifying unique branching structures in lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.).

Background: Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is a globally-significant agricultural crop used to feed millions of people. Lentils have been cultivated in the Australian states of Victoria and South Australia for several decades, but efforts are now being made to expand their cultivation into Western Australia and New South Wales.

Genetic analysis of global faba bean diversity, agronomic traits and selection signatures.

We identified marker-trait associations for key faba bean agronomic traits and genomic signatures of selection within a global germplasm collection. Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is a high-protein grain legume crop with great potential for sustainable protein production.

Two major chromosome evolution events with unrivaled conserved gene content in pomegranate.

Pomegranate has a unique evolutionary history given that different cultivars have eight or nine bivalent chromosomes with possible crossability between the two classes. Therefore, it is important to study chromosome evolution in pomegranate to understand the dynamics of its population. Here, we assembled the Azerbaijani cultivar "Azerbaijan guloyshasi" (AG2017; 2n = 16) and re-sequenced six cultivars to track the evolution of pomegranate and to compare it with previously published assembled and re-sequenced cultivars.

The giant diploid faba genome unlocks variation in a global protein crop.

Increasing the proportion of locally produced plant protein in currently meat-rich diets could substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions and loss of biodiversity. However, plant protein production is hampered by the lack of a cool-season legume equivalent to soybean in agronomic value. Faba bean (Vicia faba L.

De Novo Long-Read Whole-Genome Assemblies and the Comparative Pan-Genome Analysis of Ascochyta Blight Pathogens Affecting Field Pea.

Ascochyta Blight (AB) is a major disease of many cool-season legumes globally. In field pea, three fungal pathogens have been identified to be responsible for this disease in Australia, namely , and . Limited genomic resources for these pathogens have been generated, which has hampered the implementation of effective management strategies and breeding for resistant cultivars.

Combining NDVI and Bacterial Blight Score to Predict Grain Yield in Field Pea.

Field pea is the most commonly grown temperate pulse crop, with close to 15 million tons produced globally in 2020. Varieties improved through breeding are important to ensure ongoing improvements in yield and disease resistance. Genomic selection (GS) is a modern breeding approach that could substantially improve the rate of genetic gain for grain yield, and its deployment depends on the prediction accuracy (PA) that can be achieved.

Comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of two RIL parents with contrasting salt responsiveness identifies polyadenylated and non-polyadenylated flower lncRNAs in chickpea.

Salinity severely affects the yield of chickpea. Understanding the role of lncRNAs can shed light on chickpea salt tolerance mechanisms. However, because lncRNAs are encoded by multiple sites within the genome, their classification to reveal functional versatility at the transcriptional and the post-transcriptional levels is challenging.

Strategies of preserving genetic diversity while maximizing genetic response from implementing genomic selection in pulse breeding programs.

Genomic selection maximizes genetic gain by recycling parents to germplasm pool earlier and preserves genetic diversity by restricting the number of fixed alleles and the relationship in pulse breeding programs. Using a stochastic computer simulation, we investigated the benefit of optimization strategies in the context of genomic selection (GS) for pulse breeding programs. We simulated GS for moderately complex to highly complex traits such as disease resistance, grain weight and grain yield in multiple environments with a high level of genotype-by-environment interaction for grain yield.

Advances in lentil production through heterosis: Evaluating generations and breeding systems.

Heterosis is defined as increased performance of the F1 hybrid relative to its parents. In the current study, a cohort of populations and parents were created to evaluate and understand heterosis across generations (i.e.

Contributes Quantitative Trait Loci and Candidate Genes Associated With Ascochyta Blight Resistance in Lentil.

Australian lentil production is affected by several major biotic constraints including Ascochyta blight (AB), caused by a devastating fungal disease. Cultivation of AB resistant cultivars, alongside agronomic management including fungicide application, is the current most economically viable control strategy. However, the breakdown of AB resistance in cultivars, such as Northfield and Nipper, suggests the need for introgression of new and diverse resistance genes.

New sources of lentil germplasm for aluminium toxicity tolerance identified by high throughput hydroponic screening.

Aluminium (Al) toxicity in acid soils inhibits root elongation and development causing reduced water and nutrient uptake by the root system, which ultimately reduces the crop yield. This study established a high throughput hydroponics screening method and identified Al toxicity tolerant accessions from a set of putative acid tolerant lentil accessions. Four-day old lentil seedlings were screened at 5 µM Al (pH 4.

Application of Genomics to Understand Salt Tolerance in Lentil.

Soil salinity is a major abiotic stress, limiting lentil productivity worldwide. Understanding the genetic basis of salt tolerance is vital to develop tolerant varieties. A diversity panel consisting of 276 lentil accessions was screened in a previous study through traditional and image-based approaches to quantify growth under salt stress.

Characterization of Genetic and Allelic Diversity Amongst Cultivated and Wild Lentil Accessions for Germplasm Enhancement.

Intensive breeding of cultivated lentil has resulted in a relatively narrow genetic base, which limits the options to increase crop productivity through selection. Assessment of genetic diversity in the wild gene pool of lentil, as well as characterization of useful and novel alleles/genes that can be introgressed into elite germplasm, presents new opportunities and pathways for germplasm enhancement, followed by successful crop improvement. In the current study, a lentil collection consisting of 467 wild and cultivated accessions that originated from 10 diverse geographical regions was assessed, to understand genetic relationships among different lentil species/subspecies.

Genotyping-by-sequencing through transcriptomics: implementation in a range of crop species with varying reproductive habits and ploidy levels.

The application of genomics in crops has the ability to significantly improve genetic gain for agriculture. Many marker-dense tools have been developed, but few have seen broad adoption in plant genomics due to issues of significant variations of genome size, levels of ploidy, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) frequency and reproductive habit. When combined with limited breeding activities, small research communities and scant sequence resources, the suitability of popular systems is often suboptimal and routinely fails to effectively balance cost-effectiveness and sample throughput.

Molecular Breeding for Ascochyta Blight Resistance in Lentil: Current Progress and Future Directions.

Lentil ( Medik.) is a diploid (2n = 2x = 14), self-pollinating, cool-season, grain legume that is cultivated worldwide and is highly valuable due to its high protein content. However, lentil production is constrained by many factors including biotic stresses, majority of which are fungal diseases such as ascochyta blight (AB), fusarium wilt, rust, stemphylium blight, anthracnose, and botrytis gray mold.

Evidence and Consequence of a Highly Adapted Clonal Haplotype within the Australian Population.

The Australian (Pass.) Labr. (syn.

A multiplex PCR for rapid identification of species in the triangle of U.

Background: Within the Brassicaceae, six species from the genus are widely cultivated throughout the world as oilseed, condiment, fodder or vegetable crops. The genetic relationships among the six species are described by U's triangle model. Extensive shared traits and diverse morphotypes among species make identification and classification based on phenotypic data alone challenging and unreliable, especially when dealing with large germplasm collections.

SNP-Based Linkage Mapping for Validation of QTLs for Resistance to Ascochyta Blight in Lentil.

Lentil ( Medik.) is a self-pollinating, diploid, annual, cool-season, food legume crop that is cultivated throughout the world. Ascochyta blight (AB), caused by Vassilievsky, is an economically important and widespread disease of lentil.

Generation and Characterisation of a Reference Transcriptome for Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.).

RNA-Seq using second-generation sequencing technologies permits generation of a reference unigene set for a given species, in the absence of a well-annotated genome sequence, supporting functional genomics studies, gene characterisation and detailed expression analysis for specific morphophysiological or environmental stress response traits. A reference unigene set for lentil has been developed, consisting of 58,986 contigs and scaffolds with an N50 length of 1719 bp. Comparison to gene complements from related species, reference protein databases, previously published lentil transcriptomes and a draft genome sequence validated the current dataset in terms of degree of completeness and utility.

Validation of molecular markers associated with boron tolerance, powdery mildew resistance and salinity tolerance in field peas.

Field pea (Pisum sativum L.) is an important grain legume consumed both as human food and animal feed. However, productivity in low rainfall regions can be significantly reduced by inferior soils containing high levels of boron and/or salinity.

De novo assembly and characterisation of the field pea transcriptome using RNA-Seq.

Background: Field pea (Pisum sativum L.) is a cool-season grain legume that is cultivated world-wide for both human consumption and stock-feed purposes. Enhancement of genetic and genomic resources for field pea will permit improved understanding of the control of traits relevant to crop productivity and quality.

Assessment of genetic variation within a global collection of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) cultivars and landraces using SNP markers.

Background: Lentil is a self-pollinated annual diploid (2n = 2× = 14) crop with a restricted history of genetic improvement through breeding, particularly when compared to cereal crops. This limited breeding has probably contributed to the narrow genetic base of local cultivars, and a corresponding potential to continue yield increases and stability. Therefore, knowledge of genetic variation and relationships between populations is important for understanding of available genetic variability and its potential for use in breeding programs.