Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Pulse crops (dry pea: Pisum sativum L.; lentil: Lens culinaris Medik.; chickpea: Cicer arietinum L.) are rich in dietary protein (20-25%), prebiotic carbohydrates (12-15%), vitamins, and minerals. Pulses are integral to the American food system, providing food security and crop sustainability via biological nitrogen fixation. Pulses are new to South Carolina, where they are used as winter cash crops instead of leaving farmland fallow. Pulses are consumed as whole foods (in salads, soups, or as a snack) and as an ingredient in the plant-based protein market. American per capita pulse consumption is low due to unfamiliarity and the perception of off-flavors. In most pulse breeding programs, the goals are yield, disease resistance, agronomy, and seed quality. Consumer acceptance traits, such as flavor, odor, and texture, have been less studied but must be addressed to increase pulse consumption in the USA. This seed grant aims to characterize the type and concentration of flavor compounds in the dry pea association mapping population and select the most favorable accessions for breeding approach. We will submit a standard research grant to identify underlying translational genetic mechanisms for dry peas, chickpeas, and lentils. This seed grant directly addresses the Plant Breeding for Agricultural Production: A1141 priority by supporting public breeding efforts to improve crop productivity and quality, both conventional and genomic-enabled plant breeding. The proposed work will characterize the flavor compounds in the diversity panel, i.e., the priority of pre-breeding, germplasm enhancement, cultivar development, and selection theory.
Animal Health Component
40%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
40%
Applied
40%
Developmental
20%
Goals / Objectives
Characterize the type and concentration of flavor compounds in the dry pea association mapping population and select the most favorable accessions as parents using the "micro-tasting" approach.Develop a standard research grant in 2026 to understand flavor chemistry towards pulse breeding to pulse-inclusive diets using trained sensory panels.
Project Methods
Genetic material: A ~350-member association mapping population and check cultivars will be used for this study. These accessions will be planted in a complete α-lattice field design with commercial checks with three replicates at on-farm locations in SC for two years.Data collection: On-farm variety performance will be evaluated using days to flower, days to harvest maturity, plant height, canopy height, 1000-seed weight, and grain yield. All field evaluations will record diseases, insects, and weeds weekly using a scale developed by the CU Pulse Breeding program. At physiological maturity, plots will be hand-harvested and threshed, and the 1000-seed weight will be obtained using a top-loading electronic balance. Harvested subsamples will be stored at −40°C until flavor and "micro-tasting" analysis.Flavor analysis: Finely ground seed (12 g) will be combined with a solvent system to extract flavors and analyzed using Agilent's Mass Hunter Workstation Qualitative Analysis for GC-MS and LC-MS (version 10.1) and the compounds identified using the National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) library built into the software. Saponins will be extracted from seeds with 70% aqueous ethanol and analyzed using Agilent's 1100 series HPLC system. Freshly harvested dry pea seeds will be cooked according to our team's standard slow-cooking procedure. Trained personnel will test the mouthfeel, flavor, odor, and texture according to the scale (1-5) developed by the PD's breeding program.Texture: Seed thickness or surface texture will be quantified using a TA-91 texture analyzer.Genotyping: Illumina sequencing will only be conducted for the accessions lacking available genotyping data (outsourced to HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology). Raw sequencing data will be processed using TASSEL. Genetic variants [i.e., SNP markers] identified from GWAS will be analyzed to determine the number of favorable alleles at each locus.Data Analysis: Raw phenotypic datasets from each location will be compiled in years 1 and 2. Broad-sense heritability estimates will be calculated using the R package. Spearman correlation coefficients and rankings will be generated to understand interrelationships among production and flavor traits. ANOVA will be performed to understand the individual effects of genotype, environment, and genotype-by-environment interaction.