Breeding, agronomic and biotechnological approaches for reintegration and revalorization of legumes in Mediterranean agriculture – MediLeg

A collaborative interdisciplinary initiative is proposed to promote grain legume cultivation in Mediterranean countries. It includes biotechnologists, agronomists, plant breeders, crop physiologists, organic chemists and phytopathologists from Algeria, Egypt, France, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia with the aim to evaluate currently and previously grown grain legume varieties for characteristics of importance to sustainable agriculture and to apply novel tools to integrate genetic resistance with other control practises in a concerted manner. Priority is given to the combination of increased yield and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, epidemiology and integrated management thus allowing for the production of leguminous crops of high value in crop rotations of low input and stable yields.

The general objective of the work is to combine the application of marker-assisted selection and conventional breeding methods to develop enhanced grain legume genotypes with characteristics of importance to sustainable agriculture across Mediterranean.
This will be achieved by:
(i) Evaluation of current and historic chickpea, common bean, faba bean, lentil and pea germplasm for characteristics of importance to sustainable agriculture in order to define the desired phenotypes suitable for each Mediterranean area
(ii) Development of new and reliable screening methods for the most relevant biotic and abiotic stresses in order to identify new sources of resistance and characterise the resistance mechanisms. The resulting germplasm will be of great interest in future breeding programmes
(iii) Identification of new QTLs for yield and resistance/tolerance to stresses in pea. Studies on field stability of QTLs across diverse locations and genetic backgrounds will allow the development of specific markers for pyramiding and rapid screening.
(iv) Identification of primary inoculum sources explaining the recurrence of the disease, and evaluation of new combinations of control methods (architectural features, cultural practices, resistance, etc) for the management of the major legume diseases.
(v) Development of integrated management of the fungal diseases and broomrapes using fungal and plant metabolites.