In recent years, so-called ‘lost crops’ have been appraised in a number of reviews, among them Lablab purpureus in the context of African vegetable species. This crop cannot truly be considered ‘lost’ because worldwide more than 150 common names are applied to it. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this paper aims to put forward four theses, (i) Lablab is one of the most diverse domesticated legume species and has multiple uses. Although its largest agro-morphological diversity occurs in South Asia, its origin appears to be Africa. (ii) Crop improvement in South Asia is based on limited genetic diversity. (iii) The restricted research and development performed in Africa focuses either on improving forage or soil properties mostly through one popular cultivar, Rongai, while the available diversity of lablab in Africa might be under threat of genetic erosion. (iv) Lablab is better adapted to drought than common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) or cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), both of which have been preferred to lablab in African agricultural production systems. Lablab might offer comparable opportunities for African agriculture in the view of global change. Its wide potential for adaptation throughout eastern and southern Africa is shown with a GIS (geographic information systems) approach.
Molecular markers have been used to study genetic diversity within a set of Lablab purpureus accessions collected from the southern states of India. Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) molecular marker studies using a total of 78 L. purpureus accessions with nine primer combinations showed there was very little genetic diversity within the L. purpureus accessions from the southern Indian germplasm collection as compared to a set of 15 accessions from other international germplasm collections that included African accessions. The set of 15 were selected from a random amplified length polymorphism (RAPD) marker study and chosen on the basis of widest genetic distance. Further molecular analysis with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) markers from 97 expressed sequence tag (EST) and gene-specific primer pairs, designed from a range of legume sequences, concurred with the AFLP analyses. Both of these approaches provide a wealth of markers for diversity and mapping studies. The 97 sequence-specific primer pairs tested in L. purpureus resulted in 70% amplification success, with 44% of primer pairs amplifying single bands and 10% double bands. Markers generated from these EST and genomic sequences provide useful cross-reference to comparative legume genomics that will potentially have long-term benefit to legume plant breeding.
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