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Plant Physiology 137:1173

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EDITORIAL

"Translational" Legume Biology. Models to Crops

The last twenty years have been a period of rapid advance in our understanding of plant biology, metabolism, and genomics. In large part, these advances were facilitated by adoption of plant models, the first and most important being Arabidopsis thaliana. This paradigm was quickly adopted by other communities, resulting in, for example, the sequencing of the rice (Oryza sativa) genome. The legume community has not been immune and, for a wide variety of reasons, adopted two models, Medicago truncatula and Lotus japonicus. The genome sequences of these two plants are expected by the end of 2006 (Young et al., 2005Go).

With this as a backdrop, the legume community came together recently to access progress and to set future goals for legume comparative biology (Cross-Legume Advances through Genomics [CATG] Conference, Santa Fe, NM, December 14–15, 2004). A major topic was how to harness the information available in both legume and non-legume models to address needs across a wide variety of legume species. Comparative biology and, more specifically, comparative genomics (Zhu et al., 2005Go) were the major topics of conversation. Details and specific recommendations of this meeting can be found in this issue (Gepts et al., 2005Go). One notable outcome of this meeting was a community consensus to select soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) as the representative species (model) for the phaseolid legumes, which comprise many of the major legume crops, including common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris).

As shown by the research articles in this special issue, as well as those in the preceding legume issue (Vol. 131[3], 2003), it is clear that our knowledge of legumes is accelerating in step with other advances in plant biology. However, are there areas in which progress is moving slower than desired?

Although molecular biology and genomics have clearly had a major impact on our general understanding of plant mechanisms, they have had significantly less impact on our understanding of crop plants or development of new bioproducts. The actions, such as outlined in the CATG conference report, seek to utilize the basic information gathered from models to investigate crop plants. These are indeed important steps. However, what concerted efforts are being made to translate this information into real benefit for farmers, the agricultural industry (including biotechnology), and consumers (you and me)? Webster's dictionary states that "translation implies the rendering from one language into another," whereas "genomics" is generally considered the use of high-throughput methods to study both form and function of genomes. Therefore, plant translational genomics implies going from the language of genomics to that of practical application. In the future, metabolic engineering of legume products in cultures of transformed plants or microbes may convert current findings into advances for the pharmaceutical or food science industries. Currently, though, in most cases translation to applications uses the language of plant breeding. Even biotechnology applications require plant breeding in order to move target traits into suitable germplasm. In other words, today translational genomics implies the direct application of genomic resources to make plant breeding programs easier, effective, and more efficient.

An examination of legume plant breeding shows a mixed record with a few notable successes in applying legume genomic information through marker-assisted selection. In other cases, little progress is being made in translating information, obtained at considerable public expense, into real utility. However, we note with some optimism the new emphasis by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Research Initiative to establish Coordinated Agricultural Projects with a specific focus on translational genomics. This and meetings such as the CATG conference should hopefully focus more effort and resources on the "language" gap that exists between basic discovery and practical application in legumes, as well as other important plant groups.

We hope that the information found in this special issue will continue to convince young scientists of the wonderful careers that exist in both basic and applied legume biology.

Gary Stacey, Guest Editor

Kate VandenBosch, Guest Editor

LITERATURE CITED

Gepts P, Beavis WD, Brummer EC, Shoemaker RC, Stalker HT, Weeden NF, Young ND (2005) Legumes as a model plant family. Genomics for Food and Feed Report of the Cross-Legume Advances through Genomics Conference. Plant Physiol 137: 1228–1235[Free Full Text]

Young ND, Cannon SB, Sato S, Kim D, Cook DR, Town CD, Roe BA, Tabata S (2005) Sequencing the genespaces of Medicago truncatula and Lotus japonicus. Plant Physiol 137: 1174–1181[Free Full Text]

Zhu H, Choi H-K, Cook DR, Shoemaker RC (2005) Bridging model and crop legumes through comparative genomics. Plant Physiol 137: 1189–1196[Free Full Text]





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