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

草豆是一种豆类作物，对干旱和洪水都有极强的耐受性，使其种子成为几个热带国家的重要当地食物来源，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。在极端天气导致农作物损失的时候，草豆往往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的情况下生存下来。气候变化带来的越来越大的挑战增加了对能够可持续种植和经受极端天气考验的作物的需求。在其8000年的种植历史中，草豆一直是人类饮食的一部分-从巴尔干的新石器时代遗址，到青铜时代的中东，罗马帝国和中世纪的欧洲，直到今天。但是，尽管草豆对食物和营养安全有价值，但它带有潜在危险食物的污名。它的种子和叶子含有一种神经毒性化合物，可导致一种名为神经甲亢的衰弱疾病。这种疾病只出现在营养不良并在几个月内食用大量草豆的人身上。然而，对自古以来就知道的神经衰弱的恐惧，导致草豆被农民、育种者和科学家低估，使其成为一种“孤儿作物”。草豆没有重大的国际贸易，开发这种有弹性、可持续的蛋白质来源的潜力的研究也太少。豌豆能够固定空气中的氮(通过与结瘤细菌共生)，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、厚实的土壤中，对病虫害具有相对耐受性。所有这些特点使它成为农业的理想作物，农业投入(化肥、农药、灌溉等)。粮食产量有限，撒哈拉以南非洲的大多数小农农场都是如此。因此，我们认为，改良的豌豆品种可以产生重大影响，超越今天在非洲已经种植它的数百万人，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之前的研究中已经开发的工具和资源来培育安全、高产、营养和对环境压力有弹性的新品种，从而消除这种作物的局限性。我们已经确定了新的低毒变种，其β-ODAP含量低于任何现有品种。此外，我们已经对胁迫和非胁迫条件下的草豆基因组和转录本进行了测序和组装，并在此基础上努力实现现代作物改良方法。通过这一研究伙伴关系，我们可以获得代表全球作物多样性和适应东非地区的草豆品系，并获得关于小农农业和种子系统的专门知识。升级项目将在此基础上建立伙伴关系，将草豆的生物科学研究进展转化为新品种，为小农带来切实的好处。此外，我们的研究还将为草豆的表现以及毒素在植物中产生的生理作用和调控提供有价值的数据。通过更好的基础性理解，我们和其他研究人员将能够更好地指导未来的育种工作，并交付草豆的承诺。

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.