6533b859fe1ef96bd12b7df2

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Translational genomics for identifying the biological functions linked to pulse stress resistance and adaptation to agroecological cropping systems

subject

description

Legumes, and especially pulses, are an important source of protein for food and feed, and areappreciated for their positive impact on the “one health”. However, their unstable yields andtheir susceptibility to biotic and abiotic stresses highlight the need for varietal improvement inorder to increase the cultivated areas and productivity. With the advent of sequencingtechnologies, a large pool of genetic and -omic resources, heterogeneous at the inter- and intraspecies scale, is emerging. Thus, it is important to capitalize on these scattered heterogeneousdata to develop translational research and boost breeding projects and crop diversification.To meet this need, we undertook the development of NeoLeg, a NoSQL graph-based databaseusing Neo4j, dedicated for translational research in pulses. Starting from genome sequencesand annotation files, we inferred orthologous relationships between genes, and proposedassociated syntenic blocks between the chromosomes of four cultivated crops, namely Pisumsativum, Vicia faba, Lens culinaris and Vigna radiata, and model legume Medicago truncatula.Available information on quantitative trait loci (QTL) for multiple traits are being included aswell as expression data. The proposed modeling was evaluated in studying the conservation ofa flowering-promoting gene. The main achievements as well as remaining challenges andperspectives will be discussed