11 November 2011
No. 1492
Director General William Dar extends his congratulations to the authors of the Nature Biotechnology journal paper, led by Rajeev Varshney, with Sarwar Azam, Rachit K Saxena, Hari D Upadhyaya, and KB Saxena. Also seen is CLL Gowda, Research Program Director – Grain Legumes.
ICRISAT-led global team cracks pigeonpea genome First legume genome sequence to improve livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the dryland tropics
O
nce referred to as an “orphan crop” mainly grown by poor farmers, pigeonpea is now set to join the world’s league of major food crops with the completion of its genome sequence. The completed genome sequence of pigeonpea was featured as an advance online publication on 6 November 2011 on the website of the journal Nature Biotechnology, the highest ranked journal in the area of biotechnology. The paper provides an overview of the structure and function of the genes that define what makes a pigeonpea plant. It also reveals valuable clues on how the genomic sequence can be useful to crop improvement for sustainable food
production, particularly in the marginal environments of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Years of genome analyses by a global research partnership led by ICRISAT have resulted in the identification of 48,680 pigeonpea genes. 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 similar legume crops like soybean, cowpea or common bean that belong to the same family. In the fight against poverty and hunger amid the threat of climate change, highly nutritious, droughtto page 2 ...4