• Energy Research
• basic medicine close
• 15. Life on land close
• Universidade Católica Portuguesa close

Legumes have unique mechanisms to respond to nutrient deficiencies that can be considered as important advantages for agricultural purposes. The preponderance of plant-based protein is on the rise, and the market value of protein crops is expected to be worth billions by 2025. To match the global demand for plant-based products, crops productivity must be ensured; however, this might be impaired either by environmental or anthropogenic pressures that lead to soil nutrient disturbance. The responses activated by legumes to nutrient deficiencies and the mechanisms they utilize to adapt to such conditions will be discussed in this chapter. The study of these factors enables breeding programs specific for legumes and crop improvement. Understanding legumes responses also allows for a better management of agricultural practices and the adoption of more sustainable methods. It is important to reflect on the impact of climate change and intensive farming on food quality and on the future of agriculture, and this chapter contributes with important facts about the role of legumes in our current scenario.

The northwest Indian Himalayas are often regarded as a biological hotspot for the presence of rich agro-biodiversity harboring locally adapted traditional crop landraces facing utter neglect owing to modern agricultural systems promoting high-yielding varieties. Addressing this challenge requires extricating the potential of such cultivars in terms of agro-morphological and nutritional attributes. In this study, 29 traditional crop landraces of maize (11), paddy (07), finger millet (03), buckwheat (05), and naked barley (03) were characterized and evaluated for target traits of interest. In maize, Chitkanu emerged as an early maturing landrace (107 days) with high concentrations of zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), and potassium (K), and Safed makki showed the highest 100-seed weight (28.20 g). Similarly, Bamkua dhan exhibited high concentrations of K and phosphorus (P), and Lamgudi dhan showed a high protein content (14.86 g/100 g) among paddy landraces. Ogla-I and Phapra-I showed high contents of protein (14.80 g/100 g) and flavonoids (20.50 mg/g) among buckwheat landraces, respectively, followed by Nei-I, which exhibited the highest protein content (15.66 g/100 g) among naked barley landraces. Most of the target traits varied significantly (p < 0.05) among evaluated samples, except those associated with finger millet landraces. The grouping pattern obtained by principal component analysis (PCA) and multidimensional scaling (MDS) was congruent with the geographical relationship among the crop landraces. This study led to the identification of elite crop landraces having useful variations that could be exploited in plant breeding programs and biofortification strategies for future crop improvement. Our endeavor would aid in conserving the depleting Himalayan agro-biodiversity and promoting versatile traditional crops toward mainstream agriculture vis-à-vis future nutritional security.

Agricultural systems are constantly under environmental pressure, and the continuous rise of the global population requires an increasingly intensification of agronomical productivity. To meet the current global food demand, particularly in depleted ecosystems under adverse climate conditions, the development of novel agronomical practices, which ensure crop productivity while safeguarding minimal impact to the environment, must be encouraged. Since aluminium (Al), cobalt (Co), selenium (Se), silicon (Si) and sodium (Na) are not essential to plant metabolism, their benefits are often neglected or underestimated in agriculture; however, several studies support their advantages in sustainable agriculture when properly employed. The agronomical uses of these elements have been studied in the last decades, delivering important cues for the improvement of food and feed production worldwide due to beneficial effects in plant growth and productivity, nutrient balance, pest and pathogen resistance, water stress management, heavy-metal toxicity alleviation, and postharvest performance. However, their application has not been addressed as part of a holistic conservation strategy that supports the sustainability of agroecosystems. Here, we discuss the potential use of these elements in sustainable agriculture, and the knowledge gaps that hinder their effective integration into agronomical practices, which result in equally profitable applications while supporting environmental sustainability.

Countries and regions around the world face a number of economic, environmental and social challenges. Increased demand for energy, primary resources (agricultural, forestry and fishing), industrial products and services (healthcare in particular) put significant pressure on the sustainability of the ecosystems that support our society. One option to provide a more sustainable base for the economy would be the transition towards bioeconomy in which the importance of biotechnology and biomass- based production to generate economic output is significantly greater than today. Bioeconomy is considered to encompass all economic activity connected with the utilization of renewable biological resources. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to the importance of bioeconomy in the management of natural resources in the 21st century, providing many answers to resolve the previous challenges together with environmental preservation. The concept has gained scientific and political attention during the recent years, especially in Europe but also globally. From the review and analysis of the literature, this paper addresses the emerging bioeconomy, definitions and conceptual bases, and its great potential in different sectors of economic activity and development of new products. Special emphasis is placed on the case of the European Union. We present the concerns of European authorities at this level and best practices already in force in two Nordic countries that can be regarded as the beginning of a general transition to bioeconomy.

AbstractDrought is increasingly frequent in the context of climate change and is considered a major constraint for crop yield. Water scarcity can impair growth, disturb plant water relations and reduce water use efficiency. Pea (Pisum sativum) is a temperate grain legume rich in protein, fibre, micronutrients and bioactive compounds that can benefit human health. In reducing pea yield because of drought, the intensity and duration of stress are critical. This review describes several drought resistance mechanisms in pea based on morphology, physiology and biochemical changes during/after the water deficit period. Drought tolerance of pea can be managed by adopting strategies such as screening, breeding and marker‐assisted selection. Therefore, various biotechnological approaches have led to the development of drought‐tolerant pea cultivars. Finally, the main objective of the current research is to point out some useful traits for drought tolerance in peas and also, mention the methods that can be useful for future studies and breeding programmes.

Global climate is changing more rapidly than ever, threatening plant growth and productivity while exerting considerable direct and indirect effects on the quality and quantity of plant nutrients. This review focuses on the global impact of climate change on the nutritional value of plant foods. It showcases the existing evidence linking the effects of climate change factors on crop nutrition and the concentration of nutrients in edible plant parts. It focuses on the effect of elevated CO2 (eCO2), elevated temperature (eT), salinity, waterlogging and drought stresses, and what is known regarding their direct and indirect influence on nutrient availability. Furthermore, it provides possible strategies to preserve the nutritional composition of plant foods under changing climates. Climate change has an impact on the accumulation of minerals and protein in crop plants, with eCO2 being the underlying factor of most of the reported changes. The effects are clearly dependent on the type, intensity and duration of the imposed stress, plant genotype and developmental stage. Strong interactions (both positive and negative) can be found between individual climatic factors and soil availability of nitrogen (N), potassium (K), iron (Fe) and phosphorous (P). The development of future interventions to ensure that the world's population has access to plentiful, safe and nutritious food may need to rely on breeding for nutrients under the context of climate change, including legumes in cropping systems, better farm management practices and utilization of microbial inoculants that enhance nutrient availability.

Endophyte-assisted phytoremediation has recently been suggested as a successful approach for ecological restoration of metal contaminated soils, however little information is available on the influence of endophytic bacteria on the phytoextraction capacity of metal hyperaccumulating plants in multi-metal polluted soils. The aims of our study were to isolate and characterize metal-resistant and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) utilizing endophytic bacteria from tissues of the newly discovered Zn/Cd hyperaccumulator Sedum plumbizincicola and to examine if these endophytic bacterial strains could improve the efficiency of phytoextraction of multi-metal contaminated soils. Among a collection of 42 metal resistant bacterial strains isolated from the tissues of S. plumbizincicola grown on Pb/Zn mine tailings, five plant growth promoting endophytic bacterial strains (PGPE) were selected due to their ability to promote plant growth and to utilize ACC as the sole nitrogen source. The five isolates were identified as Bacillus pumilus E2S2, Bacillus sp. E1S2, Bacillus sp. E4S1, Achromobacter sp. E4L5 and Stenotrophomonas sp. E1L and subsequent testing revealed that they all exhibited traits associated with plant growth promotion, such as production of indole-3-acetic acid and siderophores and solubilization of phosphorus. These five strains showed high resistance to heavy metals (Cd, Zn and Pb) and various antibiotics. Further, inoculation of these ACC utilizing strains significantly increased the concentrations of water extractable Cd and Zn in soil. Moreover, a pot experiment was conducted to elucidate the effects of inoculating metal-resistant ACC utilizing strains on the growth of S. plumbizincicola and its uptake of Cd, Zn and Pb in multi-metal contaminated soils. Out of the five strains, B. pumilus E2S2 significantly increased root (146%) and shoot (17%) length, fresh (37%) and dry biomass (32%) of S. plumbizincicola as well as plant Cd uptake (43%), whereas Bacillus sp. E1S2 significantly enhanced the accumulation of Zn (18%) in plants compared with non-inoculated controls. The inoculated strains also showed high levels of colonization in rhizosphere and plant tissues. Results demonstrate the potential to improve phytoextraction of soils contaminated with multiple heavy metals by inoculating metal hyperaccumulating plants with their own selected functional endophytic bacterial strains.