Breeding Legume populations for low-inputs systems

Departament of plant breeding

Legumes, in general, have not benefited from heterosis. In most legumes, the absence of enough natural cross-fertilization is a major bottleneck. If insect-aided outcrossing is understood better, legumes would be major beneficiaries. Our aim is to develop specific breeding approaches integrated with bee-pollinator management to 1) obtain cultivars characterized by heterosis-mediated high productivity, resilience and pollinator-friendliness; and 2) to progress in application-oriented basic questions for a better exploitation of heterosis in legumes. To achieve this, our work design and develop hybrid technology based on the understanding of the plant-pollinator inter-play for the management of bee pollen vectors for insect-aided cross-pollination using tools from pollination ecology, plant breeding and bioinformatics. It is focused on Vicia faba as a model plant because it is a partially allogamous species pollinated by managed and solitary bees and showing significant heterosis in yield stability and resilience.

COMPONENTES

María José Suso Llamas

Head of group Teanured scientist

Suso, M. J., del Rio R. 2014. Faba bean genepools development for low-input agriculture: understanding early stages of natural selection. Euphytica 196:77-93

Palmer, R.G., J. Gai, V.A. Dalvi, M. J.Suso. 2011. Male Sterility and Hybrid Production Technology en Biology and Breeding of Food Legumes ed. CABI Publishers (ISBN 978-1-84593—766-9) pp 193-207.

Suso, M.J., Maalouf, F. 2010. Direct and correlated responses to upward and downward selection for outcrossing in Vicia faba. Field Crops Research 116:116-126.

G. Duc, Bao, S., Baum, M., Redden, B., Sadiki, M., Suso, M.J., Vishniakova, M., Zong, X. 2010. Diversity, maintenance and use of Vicia faba L. genetic resources Field Crops Research 115: 270-278.

Palmer, R.G., Perez, P.T., Ortiz-Perez, E., Maalouf, F., Suso, M.J. 2009. The role of crop/pollinator relationship understanding in breeding for pollinator–friendly legumes varieties; from a breeding perspective. Euphytica 170: 35-52

Development of low-input and pollinator-friendly breeding strategies for partially allogamous crops.
Vicia faba genetic stocks (open-pollinated broad-genetic based populations, inbred lines and synthetic cultivars) for conventional, low-input and organic farming systems.
Crop separation and isolation distances assessment in seed production for organic and conventional agriculture.
Crop pollination management and impact assessment under low-input and organic agricultural systems.
Development of resources and strategies for insect-aided hybrid technology.
Identification and evaluation of discovery, attraction and reward bee-pollinator related traits

María José Suso Llamas – Científica titular – Responsable del grupo
Rosario Ana Del Río Encuentra – Técnico Superior de Actividades Técnicas y Profesionales