Grain Legumes

???This book is devoted to grain legumes and include eight chapters devoted to the breeding of specific grain legume crops and five general chapters dealing with important topics which are common to most of the species in focus. Soybean is not included in the book as it is commonly considered an oil crop more than a grain legume and is included in the Oil Crops Volume of the Handbook of Plant Breeding.?Legume species belong to the Fabaceae family and are characterized by their fruit, usually called pod. Several species of this family were domesticated by humans, such as soybean, common bean, faba bean, pea, chickpea, lentil, peanut, or cowpea. Some of these species are of great relevance as human and animal food. Food legumes are consumed either by their immature pod or their dry seeds, which have a high protein content. Globally, grain legumes are the most relevant source of plant protein, especially in many countries of Africa and Latin America, but there are some constraints in their production, such as a poor adaptation, pest and diseases and unstable yield. Current research trends in Legumes are focused on new methodologies involving genetic and omic studies, as well as new approaches to the genetic improvement of these species, including the relationships with their symbiotic rhizobia.

Dr Antonio Miguel De Ron is currently the Head of the Department of Plant Genetic Resources with Mision Biologica de Galicia – Spanish Council for Scientific Research (MBG-CSIC) in Pontevedra, Spain. He received both his undergraduate and doctorate from the University of Santiago de Compostela and work as a postgraduate student in plant protection at the National Institute for Agricultural Research. In 1980, Dr. De Ron became a tenured scientist at the Mision Biologica de Galicia working with legume genetics, germplasm and breeding and has been the head of the department since 1993. He has published dozens of articles, books and monographs, as well as several educational publications. Dr. De Ron has won numerous awards for his work and is well recognized in the scientific community for his achievements.