seed protein profiles of 47 accessions belonging to eleven species and four tribes of grain legumes were studied, by extracting the total proteins from ten single seeds in each accession and performing sds-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. all eleven species were clearly recognizable from their protein banding patterns, but only phaseolus vulgaris expressed high intraspecific variations, ...

New discoveries of legumes in the lower Galilee at the prehistoric site of Ahihud in Israel shed light on early farming systems in the southern Levant. Radiocarbon dating of twelve legumes from pits and floors indicate that the farming of legumes was practiced in southern Levant as early as 10.240-10.200 (1σ) ago. The legumes were collected from pits and other domestic contexts dated to the Ear...

The Fabaceae, or legumes, constitute the third largest family of flowering plants, comprising more than 650 genera and 18,000 species (Polhill and Raven, 1981). Economically, legumes represent the second most important family of crop plants after Poaceae (grass family), accounting for approximately 27% of the world’s crop production (Graham and Vance, 2003). On a worldwide basis, legumes contri...

The Fabaceae, or legumes, constitute the third largest family of flowering plants, comprising more than 650 genera and 18,000 species (Polhill and Raven, 1981). Economically, legumes represent the second most important family of crop plants after Poaceae (grass family), accounting for approximately 27% of the world’s crop production (Graham and Vance, 2003). On a worldwide basis, legumes contri...

Popular advice for healthy diets that may promote health and longevity include the daily consumption of at least three servings of fruits or vegetables and the variation of foods to include items derived from different plants and those plants should belong to different botanical families (Thompson H.J. et al., 1999). Ancient civilisations in the Middle East and in America included grain legumes...

Legumes, as protein-rich crops, are widely used for human food, animal feed and vegetable oil production. Over the past decade, two legume species, Medicago truncatula and Lotus japonicus, have been adopted as model legumes for genomics and physiological studies. The tobacco transposable element, Tnt1, is a powerful tool for insertional mutagenesis and gene inactivation in plants. A large colle...

Symbiosis between legumes and Rhizobium bacteria leads to the formation of root nodules where bacteria in the infected plant cells are converted into nitrogen-fixing bacteroids. Nodules with a persistent meristem are indeterminate, whereas nodules without meristem are determinate. The symbiotic plant cells in both nodule types are polyploid because of several cycles of endoreduplication (genome...