Breeding of Legumes for Stress Resistance

Genetic Transformation in Agro-Economically Important Legumes

“…Amongst other legume crops, cowpea, soybean, and faba bean have been used domestically over a number of years as staple foods, vegetables, and major constituents of plant-based diets, thus providing an affordable protein source [5,7,14,15]. They have also been utilised indigenously to make legume flour, which is used to make many traditional dishes in various rural communities.…”

“…Rainfall has become unpredictable in terms of both intensity and seasonality, temperatures have drastically increased, and pest outbreaks are becoming more and more severe [14]. On the other hand, land degradation, industrialisation, deforestation, and the use of agrochemicals become perpetuated to accommodate human populations that have settled into the natural environment [23].…”

“…These pathogens cause diseases, such as wilt and blight, which have a negative impact on the production of quality crops. Mangena [14] mentions that because of the sessile nature of plants, they are unable to evade the environmental fluctuations in their ecosystems, such as temperature extremes, harmful ultraviolet radiation, soil salinity, prolonged drought periods, and pest outbreaks. As a result, they have evolved innate survival mechanisms, such as physical (e.g., spines and thorns on branches) and chemical defences (e.g., production of protease inhibitors and lectins), which protect the plants' biosynthetic machinery from damage [27,29].…”