Department of Plant Sciences, Section of Crop and Ecosystem Sciences, University of California, Davis, California 95616–8780 (P.G.); National Center for Genome Resources, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505 (W.D.B.); Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding (E.C.B.), and United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, Department of Agronomy (R.C.S.), Iowa State University, Ames,...

Legumes, broadly defined by their unusual flower structure, podded fruit, and the ability of 88% of the species examined to date to form nodules with rhizobia (de Faria et al., 1989), are second only to the Graminiae in their importance to humans. The 670 to 750 genera and 18,000 to 19,000 species of legumes (Polhill et al., 1981) include important grain, pasture, and agroforestry species. Cohe...

BACKGROUND Legumes are unique in their ability to establish symbiotic interaction with rhizobacteria from Rhizobium genus, which provide them with available nitrogen. Nodulation factors (NFs) produced by Rhizobium initiate legume root hair deformation and curling that entrap the bacteria, and allow it to grow inside the plant. In contrast, legumes and non-legumes activate defense responses when...

The biological value of fodder is estimated on the basis of its content of particular macroelements (N, P, K, Ca, Mg). Concentration of these components in fodder depends on many factors, mainly on the properties of soil, type of land use and growth phase of crops. The aim of this paper was to estimate the effect of soil properties, land use and species composition of a sward mixture on the con...

Here, we report the complete genome sequence of Bradyrhizobium sp. strain ORS285, which is able to nodulate Aeschynomene legumes using two distinct strategies that differ in the requirement of Nod factors. The genome sequence information of this strain will help understanding of the different mechanisms of interaction of rhizobia with legumes.

Farmers and consultants were surveyed to identify current level of adoption and constraints to adoption of new annual pasture legumes in the mixed farming zone of Western Australia. Subterranean clover is the most widely grown annual pasture legume and promoted by all the consultants. French and yellow serradellas and biserrula are recommended by up to 40% of consultants and grown by 20 to 30% ...

Legumes play a vital role in maintaining the nitrogen cycle of the biosphere. They conduct symbiotic nitrogen fixation through endosymbiotic relationships with bacteria in root nodules. However, this and other characteristics of legumes, including mycorrhization, compound leaf development and profuse secondary metabolism, are absent in the typical model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We present Le...

Livestock is an important sector of agriculture, but good quality forage is one of the major limiting factors for the growth of this industry. Studies were conducted to compare the forage quality of maize and legumes sown in pure stand and in mixture in randomized complete blocks during 2005 and 2006 at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan. Maize (Zea mays L.) and three legumes [c...

The respiratory gene cox2, normally present in the mitochondrion, was previously shown to have been functionally transferred to the nucleus during flowering plant evolution, possibly during the diversification of legumes. To search for novel intermediate stages in the process of intracellular gene transfer and to assess the evolutionary timing and frequency of cox2 transfer, activation, and ina...