Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The legume family, encompassing some 20,000 species, is second only to cereal crops in agricultural importance.  It provides a source of proteins and oil in the human diet and constitutes an excellent basis of fodder and forage crops for animals.  Many species of this family are also valued for their medicinal (e.g. essential minerals and health promoting secondary metabolites) and ornamental properties and some are being used in the production of dyes and timber.  Legumes, with their nitrogen-rich life style, also constitute an important source of natural fertilizer and contribute very significantly to the global nitrogen cycle. Of particular importance in this context are the symbiotic associations of legumes with beneficial soil bacteria and fungi, which provide the host plant with nitrogen, phosphorus, and other soil nutrients and are responsible for a significant proportion of the plant agricultural output. By applying modern molecular genetic and genomics tools, the research described in this proposal will significantly add to the knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the nitrogen-fixation process in legumes. In the long term, the outcome of this project is expected to contribute to the development of more efficient nitrogen-fixing cultivars that are of importance to agriculture and the environment.