The INCREASE project: Intelligent Collections of food-legumegenetic resources for European agrofood systems

Abstract

Food legumes are crucial for all agriculture-related societal challenges, including climate change mitigation,agrobiodiversity conservation, sustainable agriculture, food security and human health. The transition toplant-based diets, largely based on food legumes, could present major opportunities for adaptation and mit-igation, generating significant co-benefits for human health. The characterization, maintenance andexploitation of food-legume genetic resources, to date largely unexploited, form the core development ofboth sustainable agriculture and a healthy food system. INCREASE will implement, on chickpea (Cicer ariet-inum), common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), lentil (Lens culinaris) and lupin (Lupinus albusandL. mutabilis),a new approach to conserve, manage and characterize genetic resources.Intelligent Collections, consistingof nested core collections composed of single-seed descent-purified accessions (i.e., inbred lines), will bedeveloped, exploiting germplasm available both from genebanks and on-farm and subjected to differentlevels of genotypic and phenotypic characterization. Phenotyping and gene discovery activities will meet,via a participatory approach, the needs of various actors, including breeders, scientists, farmers and agri-food and non-food industries, exploiting also the power of massive metabolomics and transcriptomics andof artificial intelligence and smart tools. Moreover, INCREASE will test, with a citizen science experiment,an innovative system of conservation and use of genetic resources based on a decentralized approach fordata management and dynamic conservation. By promoting the use of food legumes, improving their qual-ity, adaptation and yield and boosting the competitiveness of the agriculture and food sector, the INCREASEstrategy will have a major impact on economy and society and represents a case study of integrative andparticipatory approaches towards conservation and exploitation of crop genetic resources.