Development of genomic tools to accelerate adzuki breeding for premium quality

赤豆（Vigna angularis）是一种在加拿大种植的出口到亚洲的珍贵豆类植物，主要用于生产甜面包和蛋糕的豆瓣酱。红小豆出口商，包括我们的合作者，亨索尔地区合作社，有兴趣为这些市场提供优质的大豆。日本市场上价格最高的咖啡豆是大而淡红色的。安大略红小豆几乎完全是品种Erimo，它有一个理想的糊状制作成分，但有小，暗红色的种子。** 全球作物生产面临的挑战是需要在同样数量的土地上生产更多的粮食，以满足不断增长的人口的需求。 对于植物育种计划，这意味着满足不断上升的产量标准。需要新的方法来保持目前的遗传改良速度。生物学中的“组学”革命将是任何实现豆类产量和质量可持续增长的战略的重要组成部分。直到最近，小豆性状的分子遗传学研究一直受到缺乏DNA序列数据的阻碍。随着几个栽培和野生品种的完整基因组序列的公布，这种情况发生了巨大变化。拟开展的工作的目标是：1）培育具有大粒、浅色种子和优良制糊品质的高产赤小豆品种，2）开发赤小豆颜色和品质特性的分子标记和遗传信息。这项工作将提供独特的种质和所需的工具，以加快培育适合加拿大生产的上级红小豆品种的速度和精度，在国际市场上获得高价。****

Adzuki (Vigna angularis) is a valuable legume grown in Canada for export to Asia, where it is primarily used to produce bean paste for sweet buns and cakes. Adzuki bean exporters, including our co-operator, Hensall District Co-operative, are interested in providing premium quality beans to these markets. The highest priced beans in Japanese markets are large and pale-red in colour. Ontario adzuki beans are almost exclusively of the variety Erimo, which has an ideal paste making composition, but has small, dark red seeds. **The challenge for global crop production is the need to produce more food on the same amount of land to meet the needs of the increasing population. For plant breeding programs this means meeting a continually rising yield bar. New methods are required to maintain the current rate of genetic improvement. The "omics" revolution in biology will be an important part of any strategy for achieving sustainable increases in bean productivity and quality. Until recently, molecular genetic studies of adzuki bean traits have been hampered by a paucity of DNA sequence data. This changed dramatically with the publication of the complete genome sequences for several cultivated and wild accessions.**The goals of the proposed work are to: 1) breed high-yielding adzuki varieties with large, pale-coloured seeds and excellent paste making qualities, and 2) develop molecular markers and genetic information on adzuki colour and quality characteristics. The work will provide unique germplasm and the tools needed to increase the speed and precision of breeding superior adzuki bean varieties suited for production in Canada that command premium prices in international markets. ****