Chickpea is an important protein-rich crop with considerable diversity present among 44 annual Cicer species. A large collection of chickpea germplasm including wild Cicer species has been conserved in different gene banks globally. However, the effective and efficient utilization of these resources is required to develop new cultivars with a broad genetic base. Using core and mini-core collections, chickpea researchers have identified diverse germplasm possessing various beneficial traits that are now being used in chickpea breeding. Further, for chickpea improvement, the genus Cicer harbours alleles/genes for tolerance/resistance to various abiotic and biotic stresses as well as for agronomic and nutrition-related traits. Recent advances in plant biotechnology have resulted in developing large number of markers specific to chickpea in addition to technological breakthrough in developing high-throughput genotyping platforms for unlocking the genetic potential available in germplasm collections.
Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millspaugh) is an important grain legume crop grown in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Though pigeon pea has a narrow genetic base, vast genetic resources are available for its genetic improvement. Evaluation of small subsets, such as core (10% of the whole collection) and mini-core collections (about 1% of the entire collection), has resulted in the identification of promising diverse sources for agronomic and nutrition-related traits as well as resistance/tolerance to important biotic/abiotic stresses for use in pigeon pea improvement programmes. Wild relatives of pigeon pea are the reservoir of many useful genes, including resistance/tolerance to diseases, insect pests and drought and good agronomic traits, and also have contributed to the development of cytoplasmic male sterility systems for pigeon pea improvement. Availability of genomic resources, including the genome sequence, will facilitate greater use of germplasm to develop new cultivars with a broad genetic base.
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