Eighth International Legume Conference, Pirenópolis, Brazil, August 2023

The 8th International Legume Conference (8ILC, www.8ilc.com) took place from 6th to 11th August 2023 in Pirenópolis, Brazil, one of the most charming towns in the heart of the savanna landscapes of the Cerrado biodiversity hotspot. The ILC is a series of international conferences focused on the legume family. It encompasses a wide range of topics, including but not limited to systematics, evolution, biogeography, morphology, ecology, biological nitrogen fixation, and genomics. Although this event was inaugurated in 1978, it does not adhere to a set periodic schedule; in recent years, however, it has been convened approximately every five years. For the first time, the ILC was held in Brazil, a country renowned for its extraordinary biological and cultural diversity, and home to a vibrant community of legume researchers. The International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT), reaffirming its commitment to fostering global taxonomy and systematics, was among the 8ILC sponsors.

Since its inception, the ILC has firmly established itself as a prominent international meeting, attracting a diverse and extensive participation of researchers from various countries and continents, as well as a remarkable presence of students. By fostering global collaboration among researchers, well exemplified by the formation of the Legume Phylogeny Working Group (LPWG), the ILC is a welcoming environment in which new scientifically exciting ideas and advances in the legume family arise. For example, the 6ILC in 2013 in Johannesburg, South Africa, set the stage for establishing the new phylogeny-based subfamily-level classification of the Leguminosae. The extensive discussions on the new legume classification that emerged during the 6ILC were the basis for the publication of two papers in Taxon in 2013 and 2017, under the auspices of the LPWG: (1) a review paper discussing the progress made to date in the molecular systematics and the need for a revised classification of the family (LPWG, 2013: https://doi.org/10.12705/622.8), and (2) the new subfamily-level classification (LPWG, 2017: https://doi.org/10.12705/661.3). Since its publication in early 2017, the LPWG's new classification of legumes at the subfamily level has become successful not only in the legume community. Its impact across plant science is demonstrated by the fact that it has already reached the landmark of becoming the second-most cited paper ever published in Taxon.

The 8ILC in Pirenópolis was centered around the theme of “Integrating Knowledge on the Legume Family”. At the Opening Ceremony on 6th August, Marcelo Simon (Chairperson of the 8ILC) addressed the conference by welcoming all delegates. Then, Professor Fabio Scarano (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro) delivered the opening keynote talk “Legumes and futures: Dialogues between different ways of knowing”.

The global legume community was well represented, with 147 participants hailing from 18 countries, spanning diverse institutions and nationalities (Fig. 1). Particularly noteworthy was the substantial presence of students among the attendees, underscoring the promising role of the new generation in advancing legume science. It is also worth mentioning that approximately 40% of all participants and keynote speakers were women. The 8ILC scientific program featured a total of 126 presentations, including invited keynote talks, oral presentations, and posters, distributed among eight main symposia: (i) Assembling global checklists and floras of legumes; (ii) Advances in legume morphology and anatomy; (iii) Updates in legume systematics; (iv) Legumes and society: genetic resources, uses and conservation; (v) Legume research in the era of genomics; (vi) Animals and legumes: from mutualistic to antagonistic interactions; (vii) Legumes as a model for biogeography, macroecology, and evolution; and (viii) Novelties in legume-rhizobia symbiosis: a tribute to Janet Sprent (University of Dundee). Each symposium was opened by a keynote speaker from outside the legume community, bringing new perspectives and ideas from current research on other plant families or in a global context. A second keynote talk by a legume expert then addressed the general subject of the symposium with a focus on the legume family.

Fig. 1

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Group photo from the 8th International Legume Conference, Pirenópolis, Goiás, Brazil (photo: Adilson Werneck).

The 8ILC Organizing Committee took the opportunity of hosting the conference in Brazil to pay tribute to seven Brazilian legume researchers, Ana Maria Goulart de Azevedo Tozzi (Universidade Estadual de Campinas), Angela Maria Studart da Fonseca Vaz (Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro), Haroldo Cavalcante de Lima (Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro), José Francisco Montenegro Valls (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária), Luciano Paganucci de Queiroz (Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana), Marli Pires Morim (Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro), and Silvia Teresinha Sfoggia Miotto (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul), who throughout their careers have contributed significantly to the advancement of knowledge about the legume family through numerous publications on the systematics and phylogenetics of the family, as well as through teaching and mentoring of the next generation of legume scientists. Two of these researchers have each amassed more than 4000 legume collections over the course of their careers, and one even more than 5000, placing them among the top six living Brazilian legume collectors. Three additional collectors, Glocimar Pereira da Silva (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária), Maria Lenise Silva Guedes (Universidade Federal da Bahia), and Vinicius Castro Souza (Universidade de São Paulo/ESALQ), who each collected more than 3000 legume numbers, were also celebrated during the special ceremony. The 8ILC also dedicated one of the symposia to the career of Janet Sprent, a global authority on nodulation in legumes. The awardees were each presented with a certificate in recognition of their widely appreciated and impressive contributions to legume science.

Conference attendees had the opportunity to relax and enjoy the beauty of a nature reserve during an excursion, where they strolled amidst the unique Cerrado vegetation, observed many ecologically important and/or endemic legume species of the Brazilian flora, and enjoyed a refreshing swim under cascading waterfalls. Later that evening, the conference party provided a delightful experience with live music and dancing, adding a memorable touch to the day's events.

Before the Closing Ceremony, the conference opened the debate on the proposals to host the 9ILC in Kunming, China, or in Edinburgh, Scotland, as kindly offered and nicely presented by Professor Tingshuang Yi and Professor Toby Pennington, respectively. Although a final decision was not reached during the conference in Pirenópolis, we are all excited about our forthcoming reunion in a few years to delve deeper into the frontiers of legume science. In summary, the 8ILC was a resounding success, bringing together people from all over the world, giving them the opportunity to meet in person, present groundbreaking scientific research, and establish new connections and collaborations. A selection of works presented at the 8ILC will be part of the series Advances in Legume Systematics (volume 15), which will be published as a special issue of the Brazilian Journal of Botany in early 2024 (https://www.springer.com/journal/40415/updates/24622142).