Genomic resources for lupins are coming of age

Abstract

Lupins are underutilised pulse crops subject to increasing interest for human consumption of the high‐protein grain. They are also valued as a source of animal nutrition and make an excellent break crop in agricultural production systems. Like other orphan legumes, the genomic revolution has made it cost‐effective to also apply modern genetic and genomic approaches in lupins. These have predominantly been conducted in the two major domesticated lupin species, namely, narrow‐leafed lupin (NLL; Lupinus angustifolius) and white lupin (Lupinus albus), with transcriptome studies also emerging in other domesticated and undomesticated species. This review provides an overview of the current lupin genomic resources developed including two reference genomes for NLL and white lupin, several transcriptome resources and the development of pan‐genomes for NLL and white lupin, and describes how these offer great potential to increase grain yield and quality for these recently domesticated pulse crops. Furthermore, we highlight the importance of lupins to further our understanding of many aspects of fundamental legume biology. Combined, this will aid breeders and growers to improve lupin crops to help meet the increasing demand for plant protein in more sustainable cropping systems.

Biosynthesis of quinolizidine alkaloids in lupins: mechanistic considerations and prospects for pathway elucidation

“…Combined with the curated understanding of the QA pathway presented in this review, the prospects for the full elucidation of the QA pathway are very good. The available resources include high-quality genome drafts for L. angustifolius 61–63 and L. albus , 64,65 a pan-genome for L. albus , 66 and transcriptomic data for a range of lupin species and tissues, as compiled by Kamphuis et al 67 Additionally, transcriptomic data has been generated for Sophora species, 68,69 and these are of interest to uncover the pathway towards the matrine-like tetracyclic QAs. However, equivalent resources do not exist for species that primarily accumulate α-pyridone QAs, such as Laburnum anagyroides , which produces the smoking cessation agent (−)-cytisine ( 12 ).…”

Unlocking the hidden variation from wild repository for accelerating genetic gain in legumes

“…Only a few lupin species, including Lupinus angustifolius L. (blue lupin), L. albus L. (white lupin), L. luteus L. (yellow lupin), and L. mutabilis Sweet (Andean lupin) have been domesticated and are under cultivation ( Gulisano et al., 2019 ). There are around 800 lupin species that are geographically distributed and found throughout North and South America ( Kamphuis et al., 2021 ).…”

“…Furthermore, there has not yet been a reported example of effective gene transfer for quantitative character in the lupin. Bringing novel approaches, such as genome-assisted or haplotype-based breeding may help to accelerate trait introgression and cultivar development in lupin ( Kamphuis et al., 2021 ).…”

Evaluation of the Major Seed Storage Proteins, the Conglutins, Across Genetically Diverse Narrow-Leafed Lupin Varieties

“…NLL, also known as Australian sweet lupin, is one of the most recently domesticated crops (5). Genetic diversity studies targeting the NLL germplasm have resulted in the identification of a wide genetic and adaptive diversity, which can be accessed for improving lupin crops (6). In contrast, measurements of variation in the proteome of NLL germplasm have been hitherto underexplored.…”