''Lupinus angustifolius'' is a species of

lupin ''Lupinus'', commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet etc., is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur ...

known by many common names, including narrowleaf lupin, narrow-leaved lupin and blue lupin. It is native to Eurasia and northern Africa and naturalized in parts of Australia and North America. It has been cultivated for over 6000 years as a food crop for its edible

legume A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock for ...

seeds, as a

fodder Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food given to the animals (includ ...

for livestock and for

green manure In agriculture, a green manure is a crop specifically produced to be incorporated into the soil while still green. Typically, the green manure's biomass is incorporated with a plow or disk, as is often done with (brown) manure. The primary goal ...

Biology

Like other legumes, the narrow-leaved lupin fixes nitrogen in a symbiotic interaction with different bacteria in the rhizosphere. Bacteria living in this rhizosphere include ''Bradyrhizobium lupinii'' or the newly discovered species ''Kribbella lupini''.
The narrow-leaved lupin is an erect, branching

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicina ...

sometimes exceeding one meter. There are reduced-branching cultivars. Each palmate leaf is divided into 5 to 9 linear leaflets under 4 centimeters long. The herbage is slightly hairy in some areas. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are forme ...

bears many flowers in shades of blue, violet, pink, or white. The fruit is a legume pod containing seeds of varying colors from dark gray to brown to white, or speckled or mottled. Lupinus angustifolius has a high content of alkaloids, e.g. lupanin or angustifolin. However, cultivars with a low alkaloid content have been bred. These low alkaloid cultivars are called sweet lupins, such as the ''Australian Sweet Lupin''. File:Lupinus angustifolius FlowersCloseup 2009Mach28 DehesaBoyaldePuertollano.jpg File:Lupinus angustifolius3.jpg

Agronomy

The narrow-leaved lupin is sown as early as possible in the spring, to have the growing season as long as possible. Another reason for early sowing is its sensitivity to high temperature in spring. Lupins react with a higher yield loss, when they are sown late, than other crops (e.g. cereals) do. The optimum seed density depends on the site yield potential and is generally higher in non-branching cultivars than in branching ones. The variance is high, 14 to 138 plants per m² are an optimal plant density, depending on the yield potential of the site. On most grounds, a plant density around 80 plants per m² would be the optimum. Lupins are usually sown with technique used for

cereals A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more food ...

in a depth of about 5 cm. The narrow-leaved lupin needs to be harvested as soon as the grain reaches a moisture of about 12%. The

straw Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has a number ...

usually isn't ripened at this point, but further delay of harvest would increase losses from shattering of the pods and

lodging Lodging refers to the use of a short-term dwelling, usually by renting the living space or sometimes through some other arrangement. People who travel and stay away from home for more than a day need lodging for sleep, rest, food, safety, shelt ...

. The harvest is done with machinery used for cereals. Swathing is not widely applied. However, it can be a good alternative to reduce harvest losses in case harvest is delayed. The disease and weed spectrum of the narrow-leaved lupin is different from most major crops and it is able to improve the

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former ...

(see Use). Therefore, it is a valuable partner in intensive

crop rotation Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area across a sequence of growing seasons. It reduces reliance on one set of nutrients, pest and weed pressure, and the probability of developing resistant ...

Use

The plant is used as a

or as a grain legume for animal feed or human consumption. Through its ability to fix nitrogen and its low nutrient requirement this plant is suitable to be planted on exhausted fields as a soil improver. Additionally, lupins have strong roots, that can reduce the compaction of a soil. The whole plant, including the seeds, is widely used as a fodder for livestock, due to its high

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, res ...

and energy content. Lupins contain high levels of fermentable carbohydrates and low levels of

starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human die ...

and are, therefore, an adequate

ruminant Ruminants (suborder Ruminantia) are hoofed herbivorous grazing or browsing mammals that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally through microbial actions. The ...

feed. But lupins are a valuable feed for monogastric animals as well, because of the high digestibility of the lupin nitrogen and the low level of

protease inhibitors Protease inhibitors (PIs) are medications that act by interfering with enzymes that cleave proteins. Some of the most well known are antiviral drugs widely used to treat HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. These protease inhibitors prevent viral replicat ...

. Lupins are mainly consumed as fermented foods, bread and pasta products, milk products or sprouts. As of 2020, only 4% of lupin were consumed by humans, with the majority used as stock feed.

Lupin beans Lupin or lupini beans are the yellow legume seeds of the genus ''Lupinus''. They are traditionally eaten as a pickled snack food, primarily in the Mediterranean basin ('' L. albus''), Latin America ('' L. mutabilis'') and North Africa ('' L. ang ...

are growing in use as a plant-based protein source in the world marketplace.

Genomics

This species of lupin had its

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ...

sequenced in May 2013. It was sequenced due to the interest in low

alkaloid Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of simila ...

mutants as a food crop. ''L. angustifolius'' has a protein content of 35-40% in the seeds thus for providing protein to people of the world it is of high interest. Currently lupin is grown in Australia and sold under the name "Australian sweet lupin". The objective was to figure out how

agronomic Agricultural economics is an applied field of economics concerned with the application of economic theory in optimizing the production and distribution of food and fiber products. Agricultural economics began as a branch of economics that spe ...

traits, low alkaloid traits, and protein content are manifested in the genome. The genome was sequenced in two

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

s, the poorly adapted tanjil and the better adapted unicrop. The genome was sequenced as such;

whole genome shotgun sequencing In genetics, shotgun sequencing is a method used for sequencing random DNA strands. It is named by analogy with the rapidly expanding, quasi-random shot grouping of a shotgun. The chain-termination method of DNA sequencing ("Sanger sequencing ...

dataset for this species with 26.9x (average amount of overlapping scaffolds) coverage of the genome, then NGS-based RAD-sequencing technology was used to obtain 8,244 sequence-defined markers. A total of 4,214 scaffolds from the genome sequence was assembled and aligned with the genetic map.

Biology

Agronomy

Use

Genomics

References

Further reading