Abstract
The genus Crotalaria has about 600 species distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical areas of the southern hemisphere and Africa. This genus belongs to the family Fabaceae, subfamily Papilionoideae, tribe Crotalarieae. This tribe is monophyletic and is sister to the tribe Genisteae. Chromosome number of most Crotalaria spp. is 2n = 16, but the species in the section Chrysocalycinae subsection Incanae usually have 2n = 14, and polyploids (2n = 32) have been reported among the American species. Lack of genomic resources has hindered advanced genetic studies in the genus. The tribe Crotalarieae has two genera that include species with agronomic use, Crotalaria and Lotononis. These two genera also contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which ingested in sufficient amount can be toxic to animals and birds. It is recommended for future actions to expand the germplasm stored in banks, generate genomic resources, generate genetic resources, breed for photoperiod insensitivity, conduct biochemical and biological analysis of compounds unique in Crotalaria, and further exploit and utilize Crotalaria. These species are underexploited and their resources have not been well mined.
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Mosjidis, J.A., Wang, M.L. (2011). Crotalaria. In: Kole, C. (eds) Wild Crop Relatives: Genomic and Breeding Resources. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21102-7_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21102-7_3
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