Genomic and phenomic evaluation of sainfoin (Onobrychis spp.) accessions and assessing their forage and seed yield potential

Sainfoin is an important forage legume that has been suggested to be used as an alternative perennial pulse crop, as the grain is a rich source of nutrients and is currently under domestication. Success in breeding as a pulse crop or as a grain/forage dual use would require the use of available genetic resources effectively. This research aimed to evaluate the forage and seed yield potential of sainfoin (Onobrychis spp.) genetic resources in Tekirdağ, Turkey, in 2023 and in Salina, Kansas, USA, in 2024. The study also included the use of cutting-edge phenomic tools to test their performance while assessing the grain yield potential of sainfoin germplasm and genomic tools to address the genetic relationship among available germplasms. Agronomic and morphological traits related to forage and legume fruit and seed morphological traits were evaluated. Genomic analyses, such as the population structure, inter- and intra-group diversity of sainfoin species and accessions, were deduced using a set of genome-wide SNP markers. Significant species and accession-level variation was observed in both locations. Phenotypic analyses and evaluations conducted in both environments did not reveal a clear separation among species, and phenotypic overlaps were observed. Phenomic tools were used to analyze sainfoin fruit and seed-related traits, and the results indicated that these methods could help with rapid and accurate phenotypic measurements in sainfoin and other perennial grain crops. Genomic tools also revealed no clear clustering among the sainfoin germplasm used in this study.