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)