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Huge broad-bean genome could improve yields of an underused crop

A high-quality reference genome has been generated for the broad bean (also known as the faba or fava bean). The sequence could be used to identify ways to increase yield, improve pest resistance and more.
  1. Eric J. B. von Wettberg

    1. Eric J. B. von Wettberg is in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences and the Gund Institute for the Environment, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405, USA.

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  2. Azalea Guerra-Garcia

    1. Azalea Guerra-Garcia is in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon S7N 5A8, Canada.

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Legumes such as broad beans (Vicia faba) were called the “slow runners of the Green Revolution”1, because — unlike staple cereals such as rice, wheat and maize (corn) — legume yields benefited little from changes in breeding and agriculture. Emerging tools for crop breeding, such as genomic selection, are starting to make it possible to unlock the potential of these underused crops, enabling rapid improvement in yields even in the face of climate change and widespread food insecurity2. But although whole-genome sequencing and related forms of high-throughput genetic characterization have become routine in crops such as rice, it has been challenging to apply them to species that have big genomes, such as the broad bean. Writing in Nature, Jayakodi et al.3 report the first high-quality, chromosome-scale genome for broad beans.

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Nature 615, 587-588 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00461-y

References

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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