The IPCC Report on ‘Climate Change and Land’ highlighted legumes as part of the ‘low greenhouse gas emission diet’. It is among the promising group of crops eyed to mitigate the impacts of climate change while addressing the need for healthy and nutritious food of a rapidly growing population.
Legumes are not only utilized as food but also as feed, fibers, and biofuels while requiring low nitrogen inputs under a wide range of environmental conditions. Due to their capacity to fix N2 via rhizobia symbiosis, legumes lessen fossil fuel use by reducing the demand for synthetic nitrogenous fertilization for themselves and subsequent crops. Legumes likewise provide feedstocks for biofuels and industrial use.
As any other plant, legumes are inhabited by and interacting with a complex and diverse microbiome (phyllosphere, rhizosphere, and the endosphere, including the rhizobia). The microbiome depends on the host genotype, the environment, and the developmental stage of the plant, as well as other factors. The composition of the microbiome and the presence of some species could benefit the plant in several ways contributing to tolerate environmental stress, resist pathogens and pests, and improved nutritional quality, as well as, to reduce the use of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.
Altogether, the agricultural consequences of the holobiome interaction may result in an improvement of legume production and/or reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, helping to mitigate the climate change phenomena or its effects.
This Research Topic aims to collect recent works on the interactions of legumes and their microbiome and their subsequent roles in climate change mitigation, be it in crop production, quality, and nutrition, soil health, stress mitigation, farming systems, or greenhouse gas emission. We welcome Reviews/Mini-Reviews, Original Research or Methods to the journals Frontiers in Plant Science (for plant-related studies) and
Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems (for studies addressing agricultural and sustainable aspects of legumes) falling under, but not limited to, the following:
• Effects of host genotype, host development, and/or environment on the occurrence and diversity of the microbiome
• Effect of the occurrence and diversity of the microbiome on greenhouse gas emissions on farming systems
• Recent advancements in legume seed technology, legume quality, or nutrition-related to the microbiome
• Molecular and biochemical studies in abiotic and biotic stress mitigation mediated by the plant microbiome, among others
Please note that descriptive studies and those defining gene families or descriptive collection of transcripts, proteins, or metabolites, will not be considered for review unless they are expanded and provide mechanistic and/or physiological insights into the biological system or process being studied.
*Research Topic image by
Terraprima