In a scientific breakthrough that promises accelerated gene discovery and development of improved peanut (also known as groundnut) cultivars, researchers have completed high quality sequencing of the ancestral genomes of the crop. This will lead to better peanut varieties with enhanced pod and oil yield, greater disease resistance, drought and heat tolerance and oil quality.
The breakthrough was made by researchers of The International Peanut Genome Initiative (IPGI) led by the University of Georgia in the US (UGA) and published online in “Nature Genetics (http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ng.3517.html)”— the leading high impact factor journal in the area of genetics, genomics, and biotechnology on February 22.
The peanut that is grown by farmers today is the result of hybridisation between these two wild species.
“It’s almost as if we had travelled back in time and sampled the same plant that gave rise to cultivated peanuts from the gardens of these ancient people,” said David Bertioli, IPGI plant geneticist of the Universidade de Brasília, who is the lead author of the paper and works at the University of Georgia.
The IPGI, is a multi-national group of crop geneticists working in cooperation for several years with 39 scientists from 26 organisations in six countries, including the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). It was involved in project planning, a release said here on Tuesday.
