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IPK Leibniz-Institut/ L. Tiller
Murukarthick Jayakodi
“Legumes benefit humans, animals and the environment”

Murukarthick Jayakodi explains his special relationship with South Korea, talks about the award from the Leibniz Association and, of course, about the plans for his independent research group at the IPK.

Legumes are seen as the new hope. What distinguishes them? What role can they play in the future for human and animal nutrition?

Production of healthy, and environment friendly self-sufficient food is currently a necessity in food and agriculture systems. In this context, legume crops could play a critical role by delivering a range of services within the sphere of sustainability principles. Legumes are crops that benefit humans, animals and the environment. Grain legumes (edible seeds) or pulses are known to contain twice the protein content of other grain crops and they are seen as sustainable sources of nutrients in human and animal diets.

What role can legumes play in sustainable agriculture - for example with regard to soil fertility?

Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for profitable agriculture as it promotes crop production. To achieve higher yield, nitrogen fertilizers are heavily utilised in current agricultural techniques with a negative environmental consequence of soil and water pollution. Thus, nitrogen plays a central role in sustainable agriculture. In general, legumes can fix nitrogen from the air in partnership with soil bacteria called Rhizobia. Soil fertility is hence naturally boosted, allowing farmers to avoid expensive synthetic nitrogen fertilizers for both current legume crops and other crops on the same field. Further, about 75% of the food crops depend on insect pollination. Most legumes are excellent honey producers and are very attractive to pollinators like bees and promote biodiversity. So, legume-inclusive farming is imperative in realising sustainable agriculture.

What is the goal of your research group?

Our research group focuses on producing regionally adaptive and highly competitive grain legumes to enhance their cultivation across different regions in the world. Towards this optimistic goal, we work closely with different national and international partners to develop resources and tools to steer legume’s genetic gain into fast lane. In the big picture, we want to work towards contributing to global nutritional self-sufficiency and environmental sustainability.

Last year you were selected by the Leibniz Association as one of five outstanding young scientists to head a Leibniz Junior Research Group. What does this award mean to you and how much does it help you in your future work?

It’s one of the peak moments in my research career till date. I assume such an opportunity would be a big moment for any early career researchers. I am incredibly excited about this position because it allows me to develop my own research programme by leading an independent research group. Further, this opportunity empowers me to conduct internationally visible research and contribute directly as a scientist to the field of plant genomics.

How long have you been at IPK and with which colleagues have you worked particularly closely so far?

I started to work at IPK in 2018. Since then, I have been working closely with Martin Mascher and Nils Stein to research barley pangenomics. Martin was my Postdoc mentor; his immense support and inspiring work ethic have offered me a range of opportunities to explore science and learn from the best. I am glad that both, Martin and Nils are also co-researchers on my current project focusing on faba bean genebank- and pan-genomics.

Before that you did your PhD and Master's in Seoul. Why did you go to South Korea and what works differently there than at a German research institute like the IPK?

I consider Seoul my second home and close to my heart. South Korea is culturally similar to my home country India and provides fascinating research opportunities to perform state-of-the-art research. I went to South Korea for my higher studies after obtaining a full scholarship to complete my master’s and PhD. The work culture between Germany and Korea is very different. Koreans follow a “palli-palli” culture, means “hurry”. So, they work hard to produce results quickly. Most grad students in Korea work on multiple projects and graduate with a good number of publications. The lab training and guidance provided by the professors make them highly competent researchers. They celebrate all cherishable moments in the lab such as new publications, graduation, farewell and etc. I miss Seoul!!!

On the one hand, this sounds very exciting, but on the other hand, it is also very stressful. How did you manage the work-life balance there? And what are the arguments in favour of a location like Gatersleben?

I didn’t feel it as stressful rather I enjoyed it. It allowed me to explore various topics in my research and meet people with different research backgrounds and build a scientific network beyond my research lab. Actually, I got some best friends through collaborative research. When I came to Gatersleben I felt it is another extreme end. However, the green and calm environment in Gatersleben make me feel healthy and this is one of the excellent places for agriculture research. Moreover, I think such academic mobility is essential for early career researchers to develop into independent scientists.

Why are you concentrating on faba bean? What distinguishes it, for example, in comparison to soybean?

Compared to soybean or other legumes, faba bean holds many distinct characteristics and offers exciting research challenges. Faba bean has the largest diploid crop genome of 13 Gb and it revigorates the soil more than any other known legume. The mixed-mating system decelerates its breeding. It is under-studied and botanically, its wild ancestor is unknown and considered as an isolated species, a true lone-ranger. Hence, its crop improvement entirely depends on its current existing gene pool. I thought shedding light on these multiple gray areas would be enthralling. So, I decided to focus more on faba bean.

To what extent do you use stocks from the gene bank at IPK?

In the absence of close wild relatives, the living genetic resources in the gene bank are crucial for crop improvement. Currently, we are characterising the whole faba bean stocks at the IPK gene bank to catalogue the past diversity, and improve current breeding methods by mining important genes and promising genotypes.

Are you also working on research into the pan-genome? How far have you got there? And what distinguishes the genome of legumes like the field bean?

Yes, we are currently working on building a pan-genome for faba bean together with a team of international scientists. We developed a massively improved genome map for faba bean, paving the way for a pan-genome analysis. We recently formed a consortium, called “PanFaba” to assemble 20 genomes. Faba bean has an extremely large genome compared to other legume species, hence I’m looking forward to solving the puzzle of its genome diversity.

How do you cooperate with breeding, agriculture and industry?

A close cooperation with breeding companies is absolutely essential to transfer your new discoveries into agricultural practice. We have already established a cooperation with a leading breeding company in Germany and I recently was invited to discuss research plans and pave the way for future directions. This industry collaboration is also helpful to develop and prioritise resources for our research programme.

What goal would you still like to achieve as a scientist, what question would you still like to answer?

I have just started my new role as a PI and I have a very long journey ahead. As a scientist, I would like to bring important underutilised crops (or so-called orphan crops) to the mainstream for diversifying our current agriculture systems and diets. I believe underutilised crops are a good solution for food and nutritional security and improving biodiversity, especially under the threat of climate change coupled with population growth. But, the big question here is how do you make them competitive with other established major crops in the current agriculture? Working on this keeps me on my feet.

You were recently awarded the title of “Adjunct Professor” in your home country of India. What is behind this? And what does that mean to you?

I am honoured to receive the appointment as an Adjunct Professor at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), of which I am a proud alum. TNAU has a programme to recruit foreign faculty to educate students at the university. They sought young minds to teach plant genomics and bioinformatics. I have been participating in TNAU’s research right from my Master’s in Korea. Moreover, I have taught classes to Master’s and PhD Students on Programming and Crop Genome Analysis at Seoul National University, Korea. They were already aware of my experiences in teaching and research and therefore offered me this position. I consider this a wonderful opportunity to educate upcoming researchers and curious young minds in my motherland while performing research outreach.

What courses will you be offering next? And do the courses run online or do you also have the possibility to be on site in the near future? Your appointment obliges you to be on site for at least 15 days per year.

I will be giving lectures in two courses related to genome assembly and annotation, and transcriptomics. The university offered me a flexible mode of teaching either via online or on site. Due to current pandemic situation, the courses will be online. However, if time permits, I would visit the university and cover some topics on site in the future.