Developing Southeastern adapted White Lupin (Lupinus albus) varieties as a multi-purpose cover crop and a grain legume

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Commodities

• Agronomic: Lupin

Practices

• Animal Production: feed/forage, genetics
• Crop Production: cover crops, crop improvement and selection, plant breeding and genetics, varieties and cultivars

Winter rainfall on bare agricultural fields leads to soil erosion and nutrient runoff, resulting in eutrophication and degraded quality in nearly 40% of Southeastern waters. Cover crops are those planted between cash crop seasons to protect and benefit the soil. Cover cropping is on the rise, and so is the demand for new and improved species and cultivars bred for the purpose. Concurrently, rising demand for plant-based proteins and fluctuations in global soybean prices highlight the need for alternative protein sources. White Lupin (WL) is a versatile cool-season legume that can fulfill multiple needs of southeastern cropping systems. WL stands out among winter legume species; it is among the top N-fixing legumes and has a unique ability to obtain immobilized phosphorus thanks to specialized root structures. Currently, no commercially adapted WL varieties exist for the Southeast US. Fortunately, significant genetic diversity is available to us to develop one rapidly.

This project aims to evaluate the potential to develop, by plant breeding, Southern-adapted WL to fill both economic and environmental gaps. Our project will leverage Auburn University’s unique breeding materials in combination with the USDA collection. In a two-year trial, we will target traits related to biological nitrogen fixation, phosphorus acquisition, root structure, grain yield, and forage/nutritional quality. Lastly, we will use genotyping to explore WL's genomic diversity and the possibility to use DNA-markers to develop new varieties rapidly. Ultimately, this will help identify the most cost- and time-efficient methods to develop WL cultivars for sustainable Southeast cropping systems.

Objective 1: Assess WL diversity for genetic variability in traits related to cover crop and grain legume performance.

Objective 2: Explore the potential to improve N-fixation and P-acquisition by evaluation of root architecture and N-fixation ability.

Objective 3: Study the genetic diversity of WL and the prospect of using genomics to develop varieties rapidly.