HYDERABAD (Commodity Online): Close on the heels of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) announcing the genome sequencing of pigeonpea, the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has come out with details of better results achieved in genome sequencing with respect to the pulses variety.
The results published in Nature Biotechnology shows that years of global research partnership has led to the identification of 48,680 pigeonpea genes compared to 47,004 protein coding genes identified by a team of 31 research scientists under Indian Council of Agricultural Research. (see Commodity Online report)
“A couple of hundred of these genes were found unique to the crop in terms of drought tolerance, an important trait that can be transferred to other similar legume crops like soybean, cowpea or common bean that belong to the same family,” ICRISAT said in a press release.
Shawkat Nabi Rather, Senior Media Officer at ICRISAT clarified that the institute had achieved the genome sequencing earlier and had sent the results for publication in Nature Biotechnology but couldn’t release it earlier to the media because of an embargo.
“The mapping of the pigeonpea genome is a breakthrough that could not have come at a better time. Now that the world is faced with hunger and famine particularly in the Horn of Africa brought about by the worst drought of the decades, science-based, sustainable agricultural development solutions are vital in extricating vulnerable dryland communities out of poverty and hunger for good,” says ICRISAT Director General William D. Dar.
“Modern crop improvement technologies for smallholder farmer crops such as pigeonpea will be crucial to speed up the development of improved varieties that can provide high yields and improved livelihoods, and at the same time meet the challenges of marginal environments and the threat of climate change and scarce natural resources," adds Dar.
Rajeev Varshney, the lead scientist and coordinator for the pigeonpea genome sequencing, said,“having the pigeonpea genome sequence as a reference will significantly speed up and reduce the cost of screening the ‘good genes’ within the stored pigeonpea seed collections in genebanks like that of ICRISAT. This also means dramatically reducing the cost of developing new improved varieties for farmers,” says Varshney.
“At the moment, in general, it can take 6-10 years to breed a new variety. With the use of this genome sequence data, in the future, we could be breeding a new variety in just about 3 years.” he adds.
"The pigeonpea collaboration with ICRISAT is a milestone in the partnership between India and China, showcasing the excellent working dynamics and understanding among Indian and Chinese genomics scientists. I hope more partnerships like this will be established in the future, and I believe this will surely bring a significant difference to the whole world," says Professor Huanming Yang, Chairman of BGI-Shenzhen, the world’s largest genomics institute and a key partner of this project.
India is the largest producer of pigeonpea, but crop productivity in the country, as well as in sub-Saharan Africa, is only less than 1 ton per hectare. An improved understanding of the pigeonpea genome will have a major impact on improved crop productivity, tackling pests and disease constraints in production, and improved resistance to harsh environments and the future variable climate.
Pigeonpea is the first “orphan crop”, the first “non-industrial crop” and the second food legume (after soybean) with a completed genome sequence.
