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Exceptionally low genomic diversity in the underutilised legume Kersting's groundnut

Exceptionally low genomic diversity in the underutilised legume Kersting's groundnut
Exceptionally low genomic diversity in the underutilised legume Kersting's groundnut

Identifying crops with novel and climate resilience traits is imperative to ensure food security. Without a basic understanding of the genomes and genomic diversity of these crops they will remain underutilised or could even become lost. Kersting's groundnut [Macrotyloma geocarpum (Harms) Maréchal & Baudet] is one such crop, regarded as a useful, drought tolerant and sometimes valuable legume. Here, we present the assembly and annotation of the genome of Kersting's groundnut and an analysis of genomic diversity across a diversity panel. Accessions are grouped by geography and seed coat colour, one of the key traits used to describe the accessions. Four candidate genes involved in pathways relating to pigments or flavonoids are revealed. One of the important findings is that Kersting's groundnut retains very low diversity, about 85-95% less than two other legumes, suggesting a pressing need to conserve the existing diversity of Kersting's groundnut.

Crops, Agricultural/genetics, Fabaceae/genetics, Genetic Variation, Genome, Plant/genetics, Genomics, Phylogeny, Seeds/genetics
2041-1723
Cheung, Tsz-Yan
6f4ff6d6-da1e-4f74-b547-68ea47606341
Kafoutchoni, Konoutan M.
bbf27cda-1d7e-4402-a210-f0f979546233
Agoyi, Eric E.
435d080a-7ea3-4412-a86d-27ca53c77923
Chan, Ting-Fung
80c7618b-9d41-41ef-bec1-8032043e8e88
Chapman, Mark A.
8bac4a92-bfa7-4c3c-af29-9af852ef6383
Cheung, Tsz-Yan
6f4ff6d6-da1e-4f74-b547-68ea47606341
Kafoutchoni, Konoutan M.
bbf27cda-1d7e-4402-a210-f0f979546233
Agoyi, Eric E.
435d080a-7ea3-4412-a86d-27ca53c77923
Chan, Ting-Fung
80c7618b-9d41-41ef-bec1-8032043e8e88
Chapman, Mark A.
8bac4a92-bfa7-4c3c-af29-9af852ef6383

Cheung, Tsz-Yan, Kafoutchoni, Konoutan M., Agoyi, Eric E., Chan, Ting-Fung and Chapman, Mark A. (2025) Exceptionally low genomic diversity in the underutilised legume Kersting's groundnut. Nature Communications, 16 (1), [5183]. (doi:10.1038/s41467-025-60494-x).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Identifying crops with novel and climate resilience traits is imperative to ensure food security. Without a basic understanding of the genomes and genomic diversity of these crops they will remain underutilised or could even become lost. Kersting's groundnut [Macrotyloma geocarpum (Harms) Maréchal & Baudet] is one such crop, regarded as a useful, drought tolerant and sometimes valuable legume. Here, we present the assembly and annotation of the genome of Kersting's groundnut and an analysis of genomic diversity across a diversity panel. Accessions are grouped by geography and seed coat colour, one of the key traits used to describe the accessions. Four candidate genes involved in pathways relating to pigments or flavonoids are revealed. One of the important findings is that Kersting's groundnut retains very low diversity, about 85-95% less than two other legumes, suggesting a pressing need to conserve the existing diversity of Kersting's groundnut.

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s41467-025-60494-x - Version of Record
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 27 May 2025
Published date: 4 June 2025
Keywords: Crops, Agricultural/genetics, Fabaceae/genetics, Genetic Variation, Genome, Plant/genetics, Genomics, Phylogeny, Seeds/genetics

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 503143
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/503143
ISSN: 2041-1723
PURE UUID: 3309e3b4-ba96-4eec-9c0f-005134133179
ORCID for Mark A. Chapman: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7151-723X

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 22 Jul 2025 16:47
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:08

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Contributors

Author: Tsz-Yan Cheung
Author: Konoutan M. Kafoutchoni
Author: Eric E. Agoyi
Author: Ting-Fung Chan
Author: Mark A. Chapman ORCID iD

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