State and progress of Andean lupin cultivation in Europe: a review

ReviewLupinus mutabilis is an important source of protein in different Andean countries, and its use in diets, particularly those of less wealthy individuals, has been observed for thousands of years. There is an increasing demand for protein crops suitable for Europe and this species is a potential candidate. Assessment of Lupinus mutabilis genetic material in European conditions started more than 40 years ago, with the characterization of a vast number of accessions from the Andean region. In this review, abiotic and biotic constraints to L. mutabilis cultivation in European soil and climatic conditions are discussed, and cultivation management practices are suggested. The beneficial interaction of L. mutabilis with Bradyrhizobium strains in the soil and various pollinator species is also discussed, and the effect of abiotic stresses on these interactions is highlighted. Prospects of alternative uses of L. mutabilis biomass in Northern Europe and opportunities for breeding strategies are discussed. In conclusion, the different approach to crop modeling for Southern and Northern European climatic conditions is highlightedinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sistemas agrarios sostenibles y organismos transgénicos

Artículo publicado en revista de divulgación.Peer reviewe

Plant-pollinator inter-play in pulses in the context of ecosystem health

Trabajo presentado en la International Conference on Pulses for Health, Nutrition and Sustainable Agriculture in Drylands, celebrada en Marrakesh del 18 al 20 de abril de 2016.Pulses are pollinated by several apoid species. However, the plant pollinator inter-play does not get much attention as a useful tool in breeding planning. The attention that should be given to the understanding of the interplay plant-pollinator in pulses is the consequence of the combined importance of the pollination for the production service and breeding strategies, plus the increasing urgency, in mitigating bee-pollinators decline by the development / implementation of conservation measures. Faced with an increasingly uncertain climate and a global decline on biodiversity, the ability to incorporate the potential benefits of insect pollinators will become increasingly important to protect yields. Further, it is important to highlight that pollination and pollinators are very significant for the production of local pulse crops that are important for local communities. However, it is highly likely that bee-pollinated pulses grown today are suboptimal in terms of their floral traits for attracting and sustaining their pollinator populations. Pulses breeding for sustainable agriculture, in the face of climate change, demands the development of non-food services. Foraging places for bees are some of the ecological services provided for pulses. Declines in bee populations have increased the interest in this particular ecological service of pulses. Moreover, pulses have a great potential to be served by bee pollinators. Pollinators, as agents of crossing are natural breeders of highest importance for the development of hybrids and/or heterotic high yielding and resilient open-pollinated populations. Farmers should use pollinator-friendly crops to increase the occurrence, health and visitation of pollinators. Designing the right crop, appropriate and effective in a particular site, is where management of pollination becomes key. It is necessary the construction of a conceptual framework and an analytical tool to develop approaches in pulse production, based on understanding and sustainable use of pollinators. The view point is that plant-pollinator interplay understanding may inform breeding approaches for a sustainable agriculture to meet both goals: 1) optimal productivity (food production service), based on an efficient use of pollinators, and 2) biodiversity conservation (ecological service). To implement this approach, the methodology proposed is to support native pollinators for insect-mediated outcrossing by designing a crop with appropriate functional flower traits: Crop Design System (CDS). In the CDS approach, breeders and farmers incorporate the potential benefits of pollen vectors into practices to increase the efficiency of hybrid seed technology and, in parallel, increase the occurrence, health and visitation of pollinators, whether these are wild or managed, by developing pollinator-friendly crops. The topic is timely because initiatives, at world level (the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), on the assessment of pollination and pollinators associated with food production confirmed that the management of pollinators is an issue of paramount importance to our food supply system and food security.N

Direct and correlated responses to upward and downward selection for outcrossing in Vicia faba

Upward and downward artificial selection for outcrossing were performed in faba bean open-pollinated populations: (1) to characterize the mating systems of the populations resulting from upward/downward selection of allogamy; (2) to assess the magnitude and direction of differentiation in floral phenotypes among selected and control populations; and (3) to determine its relationship to experimentally imposed selection. Field experiments were conducted using two original synthetic populations derived from different genetic pools; the control populations (C) and two upward (S+), and two downward (S-) selected populations. In these populations, design and display of floral traits grouped into functional categories was studied. Outcrossing rates were estimated using codominant isozyme markers, and the mixed mating and the multilocus methods. The simultaneous responses of functional floral traits to selection for allogamy/autogamy were analyzed by using multivariate Discriminant Analysis. Whether selection was for increased or decreased outcrossing, the four selected groups shifted in the opposite direction of the selected type. Discriminant Analysis revealed how the patterns of increased or decreased outcrossing in the selected populations were due to a concordant multidimensional change in floral traits, thus limiting or contra-balancing the effects of artificial selection. Indirect selection does not act on traits individually, but on combinations of traits that are functionally integrated. Our results provide evidence that evolution towards self-fertilization has occurred by different genetic pathways after upward selection for outcrossing. This occurrence was by autogamous and by geitonogamous selfing. For the improvement of faba bean populations in the context of sustainable agriculture, direct selection on outcrossing cannot be a selection criterion. However, floral traits, in combination with pollinator behaviour, should be used as indirect selection criteria to increase allogamy. This approach, in turn, will allow the development of both pollinator-friendly varieties and enhance the environmental services of faba beans. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This research was supported by AGL2005-07497-CO2-02 project.Peer Reviewe

A crop–pollinator inter-play approach to assessing seed production patterns in faba bean under two pollination environments

Understanding the inter-play plant–pollinator is essential to develop ecosystem services of faba bean and improved populations for low-input systems. We analyzed the phenotypic selection exerted by pollinators on floral traits involved in the plant pollinator inter-play. We test whether variation in pollinator-related floral traits is associated with differences among plants in seed production patterns. We used open pollination and pollinator-exclusion environments to examine pollinator mediated selection and selection for autonomous selfing in six gene-pools of Vicia faba over three consecutive years. We recorded, by using Digital Image Analysis, functional floral traits related to attraction, sexual dimension, and vector matching/pollen transfer efficiency. Nine production components were measured to categorize seed production patterns. Our approach used a series of Multivariate Regression Analyses (MRA) to explore which floral traits provided the best models to explain seed production patterns in each gene-pool and pollination environment. MRA showed that variation in the incidence of pollinator-mediated selection on floral traits or in the selection for autonomous selfing can substantially contribute to differences in seed patterns. The underlying floral mechanisms are specific to the gene-pool and largely unrelated among gene-pools. Consistent results among gene-pools involved no evidence of pollinator-mediated selection as result of the floral traits under study on the main predictors of crop yield, pods and seeds per plant. However, relevant predictors of crop yield such as pod length and seed dimensions and weight were pollinator-dependent because of pollinator-mediated selection on sexual dimension, floral display and vector matching traits. We caution against dismissing pollinator-mediated selection as driver of seed production patterns variation which may be influenced by the gene-pool and by the gene-pool × pollination environment interaction.We gratefully acknowledge the EU-FP7- KBBE-2009-3 project SOLIBAM (Strategies for Organic and Low-input Integrated Breeding and Management) for financial support.Peer Reviewe

Faba bean gene-pools development for low-input agriculture: Understanding early stages of natural selection

Six faba bean gene-pools were cultivated to develop locally adapted genetic material for low-input (LI) systems that take advantage of the observed benefit of LI agriculture in pollinator density and diversity. Bee pollinators intensify selection on floral traits important in attraction and mechanical-fit but may also select for traits that increase seed set through outcrossing and aided selfing. Our research is focused on examining the impact of natural selection in crop performance under different pollination management strategies, taking into account traits relevant for the inter-phase plant and pollinator. Architectural and floral patterns are the result of natural selection and they reflect local adaptation to factors of the environment and adaptations to differences in pollination management strategy. However, seed production patterns seem to be affected by natural selection in an inconsistent way. Principal Component models showed a large proportion of the temporal variation accounted by plant height and number of open flowers and by floral shape and sexual dimensions. Discriminant Analysis indicated that plant architecture and floral traits related to pollinators are also the result of selection for particular patterns in each pollination management strategy. Flowers with an increase in the zygomorphy were favored under the open-pollination. Our work confirms the need for careful management of plant-pollinator inter-phase in faba bean breeding for LI systems. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.This study was financed by the EU in the FP7-KBBE-2009-3 project SOLIBAM (Strategies for Organic and Low-input Integrated Breeding and Management).Peer Reviewe

Diversity, a powerful tool for developing a low-input agriculture

El desarrollo de estrategias de mejora que vinculen la diversidad biológica y los servicios productivos y de regulación de los cultivos es un imperativo cuando se trata de la promoción de una agricultura de bajos-insumos (en la que se incluye la agricultura ecológica). En los sistemas de bajosinsumos, la producción tiene que basarse en los utensilios suministrados por la diversidad dentro y entre cultivos, usar los recursos locales e incluir a las variedades tradicionales, como fuente de genes útiles y de genotipos, para el desarrollo de nuevas variedades o para que las variedades locales evolucionen como nuevas poblaciones. Los sistemas de bajos-insumos requieren una mejora descentralizada y participativa diseñada para incorporar el “know-how” de los agricultores y la perspectiva de los consumidores. Caracteres del cultivo que permitan la reducción de los insumos, como la eficiencia en el uso de la asociación con especies beneficiosas tales como los polinizadores aumentarán en importancia. Este artículo describe aproximaciones de mejora dirigidas a la implementación de una sinergia entre los servicios de producción y de regulación prestados por la agricultura en el contexto de sistemas de bajos-insumos.The development of breeding strategies that link biodiversity and crop production and regulation services is compulsory when it comes to promoting a low-input agriculture (which includes organic farming). In low-input agricultural systems, yield production should rely on the tools provided by the diversity within and between crops, using local resources and including landraces as a source of useful genes and genotypes, to develop new varieties or landraces to evolve as new populations. Low-input systems require decentralized and farmer participatory breeding methods designed to incorporate the "know-how" of farmers and consumer end-user perspective. Similarly, characters that allow the reduction of inputs, such as competitiveness against weeds, resistance to pests and diseases or the efficiency of association with beneficial species such as pollinators will increase in importance. This article describes approaches aimed to improve the implementation of a synergy between production and regulation services provided by the agriculture in the context of low-input systems.Este artículo se ha realizado en el marco del proyecto del 7PM de la Unión Europea: SOLIBAM (Strategies for Organic and Lowinput Integrated Breeding and Management; www.solibam.eu)

An international survey on State of the art of Grain Legume Management in Gene Banks

An online survey addressed to members listed in the European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks Working Group on Grain Legumes and Grain Legumes (GL) germplasm managers and breeders was carried out to pinpoint the current problems in the management of GL germplasm, to work out the criteria and decisions involved in the implementation of regeneration procedures and to identify strategic areas where further research is required. The survey was divided into three sections: (1) germplasm collection details and current status of the regeneration needs; (2) assessment over the understanding of basic information required to carry out appropriate regeneration procedures such as the breeding systems, the pollination requirements and pollinating agents, the isolation techniques and regeneration facilities; and (3) assessment of different options, in addition to “ex situ”, such as “in situ” and “on farm” conservation. Obtaining, collating and analysing different kinds of existing data on mating system of GL species, effective pollination control methods and isolation facilities by species and location is one example of a priority issue. The GL community makes a clear request for greater support for the development of well-designed methodologies of regeneration that maintain the genetic structure of populations and that the optimum regeneration strategy is most likely to be achieved through integrating pollinators with the regeneration procedures. A major concern of the GL community is the lack of empirical scientific information on the most suitable pollinator agents.Peer Reviewe

Building-up faba bean cultivars for low-input farming. A crop-pollinator inter-play approach

Trabajo presentado en el International Congress "Diversity strategies for organic and low input agricultures and their food systems", celebrado en Nantes del 7 al 8 de julio de 2014.Decline in bee populations has increased the interest in the ecological services of faba bean because a group of bee species is associated with their flowers. Faba bean has a great potential to be served by bee polllnators, as agents of crossing, lo increase heterozygosity and heterogenelty for heterosis-mediated yield and resilience in open-pollinaled varieties (OPVs). lnformation on how the inter-play crop-pollinator contributes to crop perfomance is explored lo develop ecosystems services and improved OPVs for low-input (Ll). We test whether phenotypic selection exerted by pollinalors is associated to dlfferences among plants in dynamic adaptation and in crop seed production pattems.N

Genetic diversity of nine faba bean (Vicia faba L.) populations revealed by isozyme markers

Seven isozyme systems (Sod, 6-Pgd, Me, Est, Skdh, Fdh and Gdh) representing nine loci were used to study the genetic diversity of nine faba bean populations. Seven loci revealed polymorphic bands and showed the same quaternary structure as that found in several species. They revealed a high number of phenotypes. Indeed, from 3 to 9 phenotypes per locus were investigated in this study. The percentage of polymorphic loci (P = 59.3 %) was higher than that mentioned in the autogamous species (P = 20.3 %) and less than the optimum (P=96 %) indicated for allogamous plants. Total genetic diversity (H T) and within population genetic diversity (H S) were estimated with the isozyme markers. The contribution of among population genetic diversity (D ST) to total genetic diversity was 22%. Enzyme markers pointed out an average inbreeding level for whole population (F IT) and within population (F IS). Within population genetic diversity represents 78% of total diversity. Intra-population genetic diversity (H S = 0.206) was ranged with the respect of allogamous species and was clearly higher than that of among population genetic diversity (D ST = 0.057) indicating an out-crossing predominance in the studied populations. The expected heterozygosity was higher than that observed heterozygosity at the allogamous species was confirmed in this study. Although, the mean estimated gene flow was less than 1(Nm=0.814), the dendrogram based on Nei's genetic distance of the 9 populations using UPGMA method showed some genetic drift between populations. © 2011 The Genetics Society of Korea and Springer Netherlands.Peer Reviewe