SCIENTISTS at the University of Reading have featured in the world-renowned magazine Nature after identifying the 13 billion base genome of the faba bean – four times that of humans.
Researchers from Europe and Australia, led by Reading, Aarhus University and the University of Helsinki saw their large scale sequencing project included on March 8.
The achievement has been described as “extraordinary” by the university, and their efforts will be crucial to breeding beans with optimum nutritional content and sustainability production.
The project to fully decode the genome went on to test out its usefulness by searching for genes involved in seed size.
Prof Donal O’Sullivan, who led the Reading team, said: “Having shown that we can quickly pinpoint genes controlling these visible seed traits, work is already underway to locate and identify precise genetic differences that control hidden seed characteristics that determine its nutritional value.”
“We want to produce beans that are higher in essential amino acids as well as lower in antinutrients, such as phytate, which binds micronutrients and reduces absorption. Having the genome sequence will accelerate this process considerably.”
The team also explored the colour of the hilum, the scar left when a bean detaches from the pod, to see if they could identify genes that determine this distinctive feature.
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The university has been working on nutritional improvements, largely through a project to increase UK-grown pulse consumption. It hopes to incorporate faba bean flour into the white loaf.
The Raising the Pulse project is part of the publicly-funded UKRI Transforming UK Food Systems initiative and will benefit from what is essentially now a genetic toolkit for breeding lines with beneficial traits.
Faba beans are naturally high in protein, fibre and iron, all nutrients many people in the UK need more of. They grow well in this country but are mostly fed to animals to produce meat and milk.
