The genome of Lupinus mutabilis: Evolution and genetics of an emerging bio-based crop

Abstract

Lupinus mutabilis is an under-domesticated legume species from the Andean region of South America. It belongs to the New World lupins clade, which groups several lupin species displaying large genetic variation and adaptability to highly different environments. L. mutabilis is attracting interest as a potential multipurpose crop to diversify the European supply of plant proteins, increase agricultural biodiversity, and fulfill bio-based applications. This study reports the first high-quality L. mutabilis genome assembly, which is also the first sequenced assembly of a New World lupin species. Through comparative genomics and phylogenetics, the evolution of L. mutabilis within legumes and lupins is described, highlighting both genomic similarities and patterns specific to L. mutabilis, potentially linked to environmental adaptations. Furthermore, the assembly was used to study the genetics underlying important traits for the establishment of L. mutabilis as a novel crop, including protein and quinolizidine alkaloids contents in seeds, genomic patterns of classic resistance genes, and genomic properties of L. mutabilis mycorrhiza-related genes. These analyses pointed out copy number variation, differential genomic gene contexts, and gene family expansion through tandem duplications as likely important drivers of the genomic diversity observed for these traits between L. mutabilis and other lupins and legumes. Overall, the L. mutabilis genome assembly will be a valuable resource to conduct genetic research and enable genomic-based breeding approaches to turn L. mutabilis into a multipurpose legume crop.

Keywords: Lupinus mutabilis; New World lupin; evolutionary genomics; genome assembly; legumes; lupin; plant proteins; quinolizidine alkaloids; resistance genes; rhizobial symbiosis.