Development of genomic tools to accelerate adzuki breeding for premium quality

小豆(Vigna Angularis)是加拿大种植的一种有价值的豆科植物，出口到亚洲，在亚洲主要用于生产制作甜面包和蛋糕的豆沙。红豆出口商，包括我们的合作运营商亨索尔区合作社，有兴趣向这些市场提供优质的红豆。日本市场上价格最高的豆子是大的，颜色是淡红色。安大略省的红小豆几乎完全属于Erimo品种，这种品种有理想的糊状成分，但有小的暗红色种子。全球农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，以满足日益增长的人口的需求。对于植物育种计划来说，这意味着要达到不断提高的产量标准。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”革命将是实现豆类产量和质量可持续增长的任何战略的重要组成部分。直到最近，对小豆性状的分子遗传学研究一直受到DNA序列数据匮乏的阻碍。随着几个栽培和野生材料的完整基因组序列的公布，这种情况发生了戏剧性的变化。拟议工作的目标是：1)培育具有大而淡颜色的种子和优良的膏体制作质量的高产小豆品种，2)开发关于小豆颜色和质量特征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，以提高培育适合加拿大生产的优质小豆品种的速度和精度，这些品种在国际市场上享有溢价。

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.