Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Lablab Legume Genome Sequenced as Orphan Crop Breeding Resource

In Nature Communications, researchers at Kenya's International Livestock Research Institute and other centers in Kenya, the UK, Germany, and Ethiopia share findings from a genomic analysis of the  legume crop plant lablab, Lablab purpureus. The team turned to long-read sequencing with a portable Oxford Nanopore MinION instrument, coupled with published Illumina short reads and new Hi-C data, to put together a high-quality chromosome-scale genome assembly for lablab, comparing it to re-sequenced genomes for other wild and cultivated accessions. By digging into the sequences, the authors unearthed genes influencing lablab nutritional features, while highlighting the plant's domestication history, genetic diversity, and phenotypic variation. "The genomic data generated here provide a valuable resource for lablab improvement," the authors explain. "We confirm the dual domestication origin of lablab by resequencing wild and domesticated accessions. We also examine genetic and phenotypic diversity in a comprehensive lablab collection."