The Search for Wild Relatives of Cool Season Legumes

The study of origin and domestication of legumes described in this book emerged when it became apparent that while thiskind of information isadequate for cereals, the pulses lagged behind. At the end of the 1960s the senior author initiated a study on the chickpea's wild relatives followed by similar attempts for broad bean, fenugreek, common vetch, bitter vetch, and lentil. The junior author joined the project inthe late 1980s with astudy ofthe genetics of interspecific hybrid embryo abortion in lentil and later has extensively investigated chickpea domestication and wild peas. While thisbook mainly describes our research findings, pertinent results obtained by others are also discussed and evaluated. Studying the wild relatives oflegumes included evaluation of their taxonomic status, their morphological variation, ecological requirements, exploration of their distribution, and seed collection in their natural habitats. Seeds wereexamined fortheir protein profile as preliminary hints of their affinity to the cultigens and plants grown from these seeds were used for establishing their karyotype, producing intra- and interspecific hybrids and analyses of their chromosome pairing at meiosis and fertility. The aim of these investigations was the identification of the potential wild gene pool of the domesticated forms. Assessment of genetic variation among accessions, particularly in the genus Lens, was made by isozymes and chloroplast DNA studies. The main findingsincludethe discovery of the chickpea wild progenitor;studies oflentil inthree crossability groups; wild peasproceeded in two lines ofstudy;faba bean and fenugreek andtheir wild progenitors have not yet been identified; common vetch andits related form were treated hereas an aggregate (A. sativa);we foundgene flow between members of different karyotypes ispossible; bitter vetchand its relation to the domesticated form were established by breedingexperiments.