Genomics, trait mapping and molecular breeding in pigeonpea and chickpea

Abstract

Pigeonpea and chickpea are among the most important pulse crops grown in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, Canada and Middle East. The major production of these pulses comes from India, which is also the biggest consumer and importer. However, productivity in these pulse crops is stagnant and unacceptably low for decades, mainly due to their exposure to a number of biotic and abiotic stresses in the marginal environments. Moreover, these pulses were almost untouched from the genomics interventions until early years of twenty first century. However, last ten years have witnessed significant development and deployment of genomics for crop improvement programs. At present, thousands of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, millions of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), several cost effective genotyping platforms, many dense genetic maps, draft genomes and re-sequencing data for several hundred to thousand genomes have been developed. A number of trait associated markers have been developed and are being used in developing improved lines through genomics assisted breeding (GAB).