Grain Legumes
New strategies to improve grain legumes for food and feed (FP6-2002-FOOD-1-506223)
Description
Grain Legumes Integrated Project (GLIP) is a large multinational project, co-funded by the European Commission FP6 Framework Programme, striving to develop new strategies to enhance the use of grain legumes crops in food for human consumption and animal feed in Europe and beyond. Grain legumes such as peas, chickpeas, beans and lupins have a significant role to play in European agriculture because of their value as an important source of vegetable protein for human and animal alike and their beneficial impact on the environment. However, the use of these crops in European farming systems is relatively limited compared with the rest of the world because of problems with nutrition, disease, drought and plant morphology. The principle objective of the project is to mobilise and integrate the European research effort on grain legumes to address these major agricultural constraints affecting the production of GL crops in Europe. Emphasis will be placed on using state-of-the-art methodologies including genomics and bioinformatics, together with transcriptomics and metabolomics.
NIAB Objectives
The major aim of WP5.4 - Crop and Comparative Genomics - is to carry out detailed comparative genetic mapping in the major grain legumes pea, chickpea, faba bean, bean, lentil and lupin. Up to 1000 intron-targeted, gene-based markers conserved among several legume species will be mapped across all species in which polymorphism is detected, resulting in a detailed description of syntenic relationships, knowledge of which will facilitate cross-legume mapping of genes and agrnomic traits, and increase the efficiency of map based cloning of genes of interest. The role of the Crop Genetics Group in WP5.4 is to carry out a study on genome-wide levels of microsynteny between Phaseolus vulgaris and model legume species by studying the co-localization of neighbouring genes from the Medicago genome in Phaseolus BAC contigs. The results will provide insight into the pace and extent of rearrangements in gene order in the legumes and will inform map based cloning strategies which rely on model-based marker saturation of target genetic intervals.
Time-scale
From: 10/02/03
To: 09/02/07
Partners
The consortium involves 53 contractors from 18 countries. See The Grain Legumes Integrated Project Website for further details.