The last century has witnessed rapid domestication of the narrow-leafed lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.) as a grain legume crop, exploiting discovered alleles conferring low-alkaloid content (iucundus), vernalization independence (Ku and Julius), and reduced pod shattering (lentus and tardus). In this study, a L. angustifolius mapping population was subjected to massive analysis of cDNA ends (MACE). The MACE yielded 4185 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for linkage map improvement and 30,595 transcriptomic profiles for expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) mapping. The eQTL highlighted a high number of cis- and trans-regulated alkaloid biosynthesis genes with gene expression orchestrated by a regulatory agent localized at iucundus locus, supporting the concept that ETHYLENE RESPONSIVE TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR RAP2-7 may control low-alkaloid phenotype. The analysis of Ku shed light on the vernalization response via FLOWERING LOCUS T and FD regulon in L. angustifolius, providing transcriptomic evidence for the contribution of several genes acting in C-repeat binding factor (CBF) cold responsiveness and in UDP-glycosyltransferases pathways. Research on lentus selected a DUF1218 domain protein as a candidate gene controlling the orientation of the sclerified endocarp and a homolog of DETOXIFICATION14 for purplish hue of young pods. An ABCG transporter was identified as a hypothetical contributor to sclerenchyma fortification underlying tardus phenotype.

The fungus, Diaporthe toxica, anamorph Phomopsis sp., previously classified as P. leptostromiformis, is a plant endophyte and occasional pathogen, causing Phomopsis stem blight. This disease is damaging not only to lupins but also to the animals grazing on infected plants, due to the toxic secondary metabolites called phomopsins. The aim of this work was to validate markers for resistance to Phomopsis stem blight in narrow-leafed lupins and identify novel germplasm with increased levels of resistance to the disease. Plant inoculations were performed using ten isolates of D. toxica, originating from Australia and Poland. The European core collection of L. angustifolius was evaluated both in a controlled environment and with field experiments to classify the accessions based on their resistance to the disease. Simultaneously, the accessions were assayed with disease resistance markers to identify donors of hypothetical resistance alleles. We have found that the European lupin germplasm collection preserves wild and domesticated donors of at least two resistance genes to Phomopsis stem blight, including Phr1 and PhtjR. Molecular markers PhtjM7, InDel2, and InDel10, tagging PhtjR gene, were applicable for marker-assisted selection targeting the European gene pool with an expected accuracy of 95%. None of diagnostic markers for the Phr1 locus was found useful for European breeding programs; two existing markers Ph258M1 and Ph258M2 were unreliable, due to a high percentage of false-positive results (up to 58%) and a high recombination rate between markers (~30%).

Summary Tissue nitrogen (N) concentration has been correlated with respiration (RS) across plants of different life‐forms, functional and phylogenetic groups, plant organs and ectomycorrhizae of different fungal species. Nothing is known, however, if a similar relationship exists in other organisms like fungi. Here, we explored the N‐RS relationship across sporocarps of 93 fungal species that varied in their guilds (mutualistic, saprotrophic and parasitic) as well as ‘tissue’ types (caps and stipes). We hypothesized that RS, N and protein concentrations were higher for saprotrophic fungi than for either mutualistic or parasitic fungi and were higher for caps than for stipes. We also hypothesized that respiration of fungal guild could be predicted by the N concentration. Lastly, we predicted N and RS were phylogenetically conserved and that by subtracting metabolically inactive N in chitin, we could improve the N‐RS relationship. Sporocarp N concentration only explained 26% of the variation in RS across species. We found a significant difference in the N‐RS relationship among the three fungal guilds, but no difference between the two tissue types. Saprotrophic species had higher N concentration and respiration than mutualistic and parasitic fungal species. Sporocarp components differed with caps showing both higher respiration and higher N and protein concentrations than stipes. Overall, our results show that fungal sporocarp nitrogen concentration is phylogenetically conserved among fungal families and may prove to be a strong predictor of fungal guild. The positive N‐RS relationships existed for all fungal species (similar to plants), within fungal guilds (similar to plant functional groups), and fungal ‘tissue’ types (like plants’ organs). The clear linkage of fungal sporocarp respiration to total N concentration could help improve C and N cycling models in forest ecosystems by including estimates of fungal respiration based on fungal N concentration. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.12688/suppinfo is available for this article.