Molecular Genetics and Breeding of Grain Legume Crops for the Semi-Arid Tropics

Varshney, R K and Hoisington, D A and Upadhyaya, H D and Gaur, P M and Nigam, S N and Saxena, K B and Vadez, V and Sethy, N K and Bhatia, S and Aruna, R and Gowda, M V C and Singh, N K (2007) Molecular Genetics and Breeding of Grain Legume Crops for the Semi-Arid Tropics. In: Genomics-Assisted Crop Improvement Vol 2: Genomics Applications in Crops. Springer Netherlands, Springer Netherlands, Netherlands, pp. 207-241. ISBN 978-1-4020-6296-4

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Abstract

Grain legumes are important crops for providing key components in the diets of resource-poor people of the semi-arid tropic (SAT) regions of the world. Although there are several grain legume crops grown in SAT, the present chapter deals with three important legumes i.e. groundnut or peanut (Arachis hypogaea), chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan). Production of these legume crops are challenged by serious abiotic stresses e.g. drought, salinity as well as several fungal, viral and nematode diseases. To tackle these constraints through molecular breeding, some efforts have been initiated to develop genomic resources e.g. molecular markers, molecular genetic maps, expressed sequence tags (ESTs), macro-/micro- arrays, bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs), etc. These genomic resources together with recently developed genetic and genomics strategies e.g. functional molecular markers, linkage-disequilibrium (LD) based association mapping, functional and comparative genomics offer the possibility of accelerating molecular breeding for abiotic and biotic stress tolerances in the legume crops. However, low level of polymorphism present in the cultivated genepools of these legume crops, imprecise phenotyping of the germplasm and the higher costs of development and application of genomic tools are critical factors in utilizing genomics in breeding of these legume crops.

Item Type:	Book Section
Divisions:	UNSPECIFIED
CRP:	UNSPECIFIED
Subjects:	Others > Food Legumes Others > Genetics and Genomics
Depositing User:	Mr Sanat Kumar Behera
Date Deposited:	14 Oct 2011 10:44
Last Modified:	03 Nov 2011 09:09
URI:	http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/2535
Acknowledgement:	Authors would like to thank the past and present colleagues at ICRISAT as well as our partners for their dedicated work in the area of legume improvement. Thanks are due to Priti Swamy, Yogendra Khedikar and Rachit Saxena, research scholars RKV at ICRISAT for their help in collecting some literature and formatting the references.
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