‘Pigeonpea DNA re-sequencing will lead to superior varieties’

Research traces its likely origin to Madhya Pradesh

Senior scientist Rachit Saxena, director general David Bergvinson, project director Rajeev K. Varshney, and principal scientist Sameer Kumar observing the pigeonpeas at ICRISAT.

In a significant breakthrough, a global team of 19 scientists from nine institutes have re-sequenced the genome — or DNA — of 292 pigeonpea varieties (cajanus cajan – commonly called arhar or tur dal).

They have also discovered new traits such as resistance to various diseases that affect the crop and its insensitivity to photo-period (the duration of daylight hours required for reaching maturity). The research also traces the likely origin of the domesticated pigeonpea to Madhya Pradesh. These discoveries have been published in the prestigious journal Nature Genetics.

According to a press release by the International Crops Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) here on Monday, this breakthrough will lead to the development of superior varieties of the pulse crop which can enable higher production and profits for small farmers.

It would also increase the market value and bring it within an affordable price range for the consumer, especially the poor.

Global collaboration

The nine collaborating institutes are the School of Agriculture and Environment and Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia; Shenzhen Millennium Genomics Inc., China; Macrogen Inc., Seoul, Republic of Korea; Institute of Biotechnology at Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), Hyderabad; Agricultural Research Station–Gulbarga at University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Karnataka; the Department of Plant Sciences at University of California–Davis, U.S.A.; Biological Sciences and International Center for Tropical Botany, Florida International University, Miami, U.S.A.; Visva-Bharati, Shantiniketan, and ICRISAT.

“The study used re-sequencing data to identify genomic regions impacted by domestication and breeding that have contributed to narrowing the genetic base. The study also identified the genetic origin of the crop at a DNA level for the first time, and identified genes with agronomically useful traits such as resistance to sterility mosaic disease and fusarium wilt, and insensitivity to photoperiod that will help to accelerate pigeonpea breeding and reduce the time to develop superior varieties from eight to 10 years to five years,” said Rajeev K. Varshney, research programme director, ICRISAT, and project director.

It was stated that this is one of the biggest breakthroughs in pigeonpea research since the decoding of its DNA sequence in 2011 by an ICRISAT-led global research team.