Pigeon Pea Genome Cracked: Benefits Farming Millions in Asia & Africa
Posted by Unknown in Africa, Biotechnology, Genetics, Hunger and Famine, India, Pigeon Pea, Research and Technology, Research Institute on Sunday 27 January 2013
A
team of scientists has claimed to have achieved a major breakthrough by
successfully sequencing the genome of Pigeon pea, considered an “orphan
crop” and “poor peoples’ meat “ for its protein-rich content, mainly
grown by small and marginal farmers across the world.
(ZEM Science)
Years of genome analysis by a global research partnership led by the
Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics (ICRISAT) has resulted in the identification of 48,680 pigeon
pea genes.
In
the fight against poverty and hunger amid the threat of climate change,
highly nutritious, drought-tolerant crops are the best bets for small
farmers in marginal environments to survive and improve their
livelihoods and now the pigeon pea gives the hope with its genome fully
sequenced.
Pigeon
pea, grown on about 5 million hectares in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and
South-Central America, is a very important food legume for millions of
the poor in the semi-arid regions of the world.
Unfortunately,
its productivity is less than one ton though it is considered as the
“poor people’s meat” because of its high protein content.
Pigeon
pea is the first “orphan crop”, the first “non-industrial crop” and the
second food legume (after soybean) with a completed genome sequence.
The
scientific partners include the International Initiative for Pigeon pea
Genomics (IIPG), led by ICRISAT, BGI – Shenzhen (China), USresearch
laboratories like University of Georgia, University of California-Davis,
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and National Centre for Genome
Resources, and support from the CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme
based in Mexico.
The
journal Nature Biotechnology had recently featured this development
besides giving clues on how the genomics sequence could help improve the
crop for sustainable food production, particularly in the marginal
environment ofAsia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
“
A couple of hundreds of these genes were found unique to the crop in
terms of drought tolerance, an important trait that can be transferred
to other similar crops like soybean, cowpea or common bean that belong
to the same family, “ the journal said.
“The
mapping of the pigeon pea 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 dry land
communities out of poverty and hunger for good,” says ICRISAT Director
General William D. Dar.
“The
sequence will significantly speed up and reduce the cost of screening
the ‘good genes’ within the stored pigeon pea seed collections in gene
banks like that of ICRISAT, dramatically reducing the cost of developing
new improved varieties for farmers. Now we can breed a new variety in
just 3 years as against 6-10 years before, “claims Rajeev Varshney, lead
scientist and project coordinator.
Prof.
Huanming Yang, Chairman, BGI-Shenzhen, the world’s largest genomics
institute and a key partner of this project said he was confident of
forging more dynamic and fruitful partnerships between Indian and
Chinese genomic scientists.
Significantly,
it is for the first time that the Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) had supported the
India-based center like ICRISAT for leading the genome sequencing of a
food crop.
