Unlocking the Potential of Grasspea for Resilient Agriculture in Drought-prone Environments (UPGRADE)

释放草芥在易旱环境中恢复农业的潜力（升级）

• 批准号: BB/R020604/1
• 负责人: Cathie Martin
• 金额: $ 158.88万
• 依托单位: John Innes Centre
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FR020604%2F1
• 关键词: Unlocking; Potential; Grasspea; Resilient; Agriculture

Grass pea is a pulse crop with remarkable tolerance to drought as well as flooding, making its seeds an important local food source in several tropical countries, especially Ethiopia, Sudan and Eritrea as well as India and Bangladesh. In times of weather extremes causing crop losses, grass pea often remains one of the most available foods and the cheapest source of protein, helping people survive during food shortages. The mounting challenge of climate change increases the need for crops that can be grown sustainably and withstand weather extremes. Through its 8000-year history of cultivation grass pea has been a part of human diets - from Neolithic sites in the Balkans, through the bronze-age middle east, the Roman Empire and medieval Europe until the modern day. But despite its value for food and nutritional security, grass pea carries the stigma of a potentially dangerous food. Its seeds and leaves contain a neurotoxic compound that can cause a debilitating disease known as neurolathyrism. This disease only appears in people who are malnourished and consume large amounts of grass pea over several months. Yet the fear of neurolathyrism, which has been known since antiquity, has led to grass pea being undervalued by farmers, breeders and scientists, making it an 'orphan crop'. There is no significant international trade in grass pea and too little research to develop the potential of this resilient, sustainable source of protein. Grass pea is able to fix nitrogen from the air (through symbiosis with nodulating bacteria), can efficiently use soil phosphate through its mycorrhizal associations, can penetrate into hard, heavy soil and is relatively tolerant to pests and diseases. All these characteristics make it an ideal crop for agriculture where farming inputs (fertiliser, pesticides, irrigation, etc.) are limited, as is the case in most smallholder farms in Sub-Saharan Africa. We therefore believe that improved grass pea varieties can have a significant impact beyond the millions of people who already cultivate it in Africa today and could become a crucial sustainable food source for many more. Our project aims to remove the limitations of this crop by using the tools and resources we have already developed in our previous research to breed new varieties that are safe to consume, high-yielding, nutritious and resilient to environmental stress. We have identified new low-toxin variants with lower beta-ODAP contents than any existing varieties. In addition we have sequenced and assembled the grass pea genome and transcriptomes under stress and non-stress conditions and we are working to enable modern crop improvement methods on the back of these. Through this research partnership we have access to grass pea lines representing the global diversity of the crop and those that are locally adapted to East Africa and to expertise on smallholder agriculture and seed systems.The UPGRADE project will build on this foundation and create a partnership to translate bioscience research advances on grass pea into new varieties with tangible benefits for smallholder farmers. Besides this, our research will generate valuable data on the performance of grass pea and the physiological role and regulation of the production of the toxin in the plant. Through a better foundational understanding, we and other researchers will be better able to direct future breeding efforts and deliver the promise of grass pea.

草豌豆是一种豆类作物，对干旱和洪水具有显著的耐受性，使其种子成为几个热带国家的重要食物来源，特别是埃塞俄比亚，苏丹和厄立特里亚以及印度和孟加拉国。在极端天气导致作物损失的时候，草豌豆通常仍然是最容易获得的食物之一，也是最便宜的蛋白质来源，帮助人们在粮食短缺期间生存。气候变化带来的挑战日益严峻，这就增加了对可持续种植和抵御极端天气的作物的需求。在其8000年的种植历史中，豌豆一直是人类饮食的一部分--从巴尔干半岛的新石器时代遗址，到青铜器时代的中东、罗马帝国和中世纪的欧洲，直到现代。但是，尽管它对食物和营养安全有价值，草豌豆却背负着潜在危险食物的耻辱。它的种子和叶子含有一种神经毒性化合物，可以导致一种被称为神经lathyrism的衰弱疾病。这种疾病只出现在营养不良并在几个月内食用大量草豌豆的人身上。然而，对自古以来就被人们所知的神经性莴苣的恐惧导致了农民、育种者和科学家对草豌豆的低估，使其成为一种“孤儿作物”。草豌豆没有重要的国际贸易，也没有太多的研究来开发这种弹性，可持续的蛋白质来源的潜力。草豌豆能够从空气中固定氮（通过与共生细菌共生），可以通过其菌根协会有效地利用土壤磷酸盐，可以渗透到坚硬，沉重的土壤中，并且相对耐受害虫和疾病。所有这些特性使其成为农业的理想作物，其中农业投入（肥料，农药，灌溉等）在撒哈拉以南非洲的大多数小农农场，因此，我们认为，改良的草豌豆品种可以产生重大影响，超越今天在非洲种植草豌豆的数百万人，并可能成为更多人的重要可持续食物来源。我们的项目旨在通过使用我们在以前的研究中已经开发的工具和资源来消除这种作物的局限性，以培育安全消费，高产，营养和适应环境压力的新品种。我们已经确定了新的低毒素变种，其β-ODAP含量低于任何现有品种。此外，我们已经在胁迫和非胁迫条件下对草豌豆基因组和转录组进行了测序和组装，我们正在努力使现代作物改良方法成为可能。通过这种研究伙伴关系，我们可以获得代表作物全球多样性的草豌豆品系，以及那些适应东非当地情况的品种，并获得小农农业和种子系统的专业知识。UPGRADE项目将在此基础上建立合作伙伴关系，将草豌豆生物科学研究进展转化为新品种，为小农带来切实利益。除此之外，我们的研究还将为草豌豆的生产性能以及毒素在植物中的生理作用和调控提供有价值的数据。通过更好的基础理解，我们和其他研究人员将能够更好地指导未来的育种工作，并实现草豌豆的承诺。