The Chickpea Genome: An Introduction

Abstract

Chickpea is the second most important cool season grain legume cultivated by small holder farmers in 59 countries across the globe. Chickpea production is adversely affected by several abiotic stresses like drought, temperature extremes (high and low temperatures), salinity, and biotic stresses, e.g., insect, fungal and viral diseases. Until recently breeding for tolerance/resistance to these stresses has been challenged by lower level of natural variation and lack of genomics tools to adopt genomics-assisted breeding. Nevertheless, during recent years large-scale genomic resources like molecular markers, genetic maps, draft genome sequence of both desi and kabuli chickpea have become available as a result of partnership among different institutes and advances in sequencing technologies. The chickpea genome book provides an up-to-date account on developments made over past ten years and presents the road map for future chickpea research. This chapter introduces the book and provides brief summary of 11 chapters included in the book.