Seed quality as a proxy of climate-ready orphan legumes: the need for a multidisciplinary and multi-actor vision.

In developing countries, orphan legumes stand at the forefront in the struggle against climate change. Their high nutrient value is crucial in malnutrition and chronic diseases prevention. However, as the 'orphan' definition suggests, their seed systems are still underestimated and seed production is scanty. Seed priming is an effective, sustainable strategy to boost seed quality in orphan legumes for which up-to-date guidelines are required to guarantee reliable and reproducible results. How far are we along this path? What do we expect from seed priming? This brings to other relevant questions. What is the socio-economic relevance of orphan legumes in the Mediterranean Basin? How to potentiate a broader cultivation in specific regions? The case study of the BENEFIT-Med (Boosting technologies of orphan legumes towards resilient farming systems) project, developed by multidisciplinary research networks, envisions a roadmap for producing new knowledge and innovative technologies to improve seed productivity through priming, with the long-term objective of promoting sustainability and food security for/in the climate-sensitive regions. This review highlights the existing drawbacks that must be overcome before orphan legumes could reach the state of 'climate-ready crops'. Only by the integration of knowledge in seed biology, technology and agronomy, the barrier existing between research bench and local agricultural fields may be overcome, generating high-impact technical innovations for orphan legumes. We intend to provide a powerful message to encourage future research in line with the United Nations Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.

Effectiveness and Selectivity of Pre- and Post-Emergence Herbicides for Weed Control in Grain Legumes.

Grain legumes represent important crops for livestock feed and contribute to novel uses in the food industry; therefore, the best cultivation practices need to be assessed. This study aimed to identify herbicides to meet the current need for controlling broadleaf weeds without phytotoxicity in the grain legume crop per se. Field experiments were undertaken during the 2019 and 2020 growing seasons and laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replicates as follows: four grain legume crops (vetch, pea, faba bean, and white lupine) and nine pre-emergence (PRE) or post-emergence selective (POST) herbicide treatments (PRE: aclonifen, pendimethalin plus clomazone, metribuzin plus clomazone, benfluralin, terbuthylazine plus pendimethalin, S-metolachlor plus pendimethalin, flumioxazin; POST: pyridate, imazamox) alongside weedy check plots. Plant phytotoxicity, crop dry matter, yield features, weed presence, and weed dry matter were assessed during the experiments. There was differential efficacy among the nine herbicide treatments; the weed control was more effective in the case of Veronica arvensis L. and Sonchus spp. L. compared with Chenopodium album L., Sinapis arvensis L., and Silibum marianum L. regardless of the herbicide treatment. The most effective PRE herbicide was flumioxazin, which had the greatest control over the majority of weeds (>70%) resulting in the lowest total weed biomass. The second-best treatment was benfluralin and the mixture of terbuthylazine plus pendimethalin (both had only limited control in S. arvensis). The best POST herbicide was imazamox, with only limited control in S. arvensis. The tested herbicides caused low to medium and transient levels of phytotoxicity mainly in vetch and secondly in peas but not in faba beans and lupines. Concerning all weed management treatments, benfluralin resulted in the highest grain yields for all four grain legume crops during both growing seasons. Among grain legumes, vetch had the highest competitive ability against weeds, whereas peas were the least tolerant against weed competition.

Diversified Resistance Mechanisms in Multi-Resistant Lolium spp. in Three European Countries.

Annual ryegrass species (Lolium spp.) infest cereal crops worldwide. Ryegrass populations with multiple resistance to the acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase (ACCase) and acetolactate synthase (ALS) inhibitors are an increasing problem in several European countries. We investigated the resistance pattern and level of resistance in ryegrass populations collected in Denmark, Greece and Italy and studied the diversity of mechanisms endowing resistance, both target-site and metabolism based. All populations showed high resistance indexes (RI) to the ALS inhibitors, iodosufuron-methyl-sodium + mesosulfuron-methyl (RI from 8 to 70), whereas the responses to the two ACCase inhibitors, clodinafop-propargyl and pinoxaden, differed. The Greek and Italian populations were moderately to highly resistant to clodinafop (RI > 8) and showed low to moderate resistance to pinoxaden (RI ranged from 3 to 13) except for one Italian population. In contrast, the Danish Lolium populations showed low to moderate resistance to clodinafop (RI ranged from 2 to 7) and only one population was resistant to pinoxaden. Different mutant ACCase alleles (Leu1781, Cys2027, Asn2041, Val2041, Gly2078, Arg2088, Ala2096) and ALS alleles (Gly122, Ala197, Gln197, Leu197, Ser197, Thr197, Val205, Asn376, Glu376, Leu574) endowing resistance were detected in the Greek and Italian populations. In several plants, no mutated ALS and ACCase alleles were found showing a great heterogeneity within and among the Greek and Italian populations. Conversely, no mutant ACCase alleles were identified in the four Danish populations and only one mutant ALS allele (Leu574) was detected in two Danish populations. The expression level of nitronate monooxygenase (NMO), glutathione S-transferase (GST) and cytochrome P450s (CYP72A1 and CYP72A2) varied broadly among populations and individual plants within the populations. Constitutive up-regulation of GST, CYP72A1 and CYP72A2 was detected in resistant plants respect to susceptible plants in one Danish and one Italian population. It appears that the mechanisms underlying resistance are rather complex and diversified among Lolium spp. populations from the three countries, coevolution of both target-site resistance and metabolic based herbicide resistance appears to be a common feature in Denmark and Italy. This must be considered and carefully evaluated in adopting resistance management strategies to control Lolium spp. in cereal crops.