Skip to main content
European Commission logo
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
CORDIS Web 30th anniversary CORDIS Web 30th anniversary

Breeding forage and grain legumes to increase EU's and China's protein self-sufficiency

Project description

A new era of self-sufficiency in agriculture

An impressive amount of genotype and phenotype data have been collected on hundreds of legume accessions as part of the EU-funded EUCLEG project's work. Genetic diversity description, markers associated with trait variation, and genomic prediction equations are results that open new opportunities to boost legume breeding. Trainings in statistics and molecular breeding have been offered within and outside EUCLEG to share these promising results, in addition to publications and conference communications. Breeders of public institutes or private companies can now use this knowledge to make the best use of genetic diversity and to implement marker-assisted breeding. All this progress will in turn lead to strategies for more rapid breeding of new varieties that will help boost the use of legumes in livestock and arable farming in Europe and China, and decrease protein dependency, thus contributing to the overall objectives of the project.

Objective

EUCLEG aims to reduce Europe and China’s dependency on protein imports by developing efficient breeding strategies for the legume crops of major economic importance in human food and animal feed. The objective is to improve diversification, crop productivity, yield stability and protein quality of both forage (alfalfa and red clover) and grain (pea, faba bean and soybean) legumes. Using diverse and extensive genetic resources and taking advantage of advanced molecular tools, EUCLEG aims to identify and develop the best genetic resources, phenotyping methods and molecular tools to breed legume varieties with improved performance under biotic and abiotic stresses in the representative European and Chinese agro-ecological areas. The potential for new uses of forage species for human nutrition will be explored. Searchable databases will be developed or built to host passport, agronomic and genetic data facilitating exchanges and use of genetic resources. The evaluation of genetic resources in multi-site trials will allow to broaden the breeding material and extend agro-ecological adaptation. The genetic architecture of key breeding traits will be analysed using association studies in order to identify molecular markers related to phenotypic traits. Finally, genomic selection strategies will be assessed for their potential to improve genetic progress. Practical tools for genotyping, data management and calculation will be provided to breeders to implement marker-assisted selection and genomic selection leading to the creation of new varieties in the long-term. The partnership gathered in EUCLEG, combining public institutes and private companies of Europe and China, guaranties the transfer of knowledge from research to seed industry.

Call for proposal

H2020-SFS-2016-2017

See other projects for this call

Sub call

H2020-SFS-2016-2

Coordinator

INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE POUR L'AGRICULTURE, L'ALIMENTATION ET L'ENVIRONNEMENT
Net EU contribution
€ 990 858,50
Address
147 RUE DE L'UNIVERSITE
75007 Paris
France

See on map

Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost
€ 1 087 621,25

Participants (39)