Pigeonpea improvement: An amalgam of breeding and genomic research

In the past five decades, constant research has been directed towards yield improvement in pigeonpea resulting in the deployment of several commercially acceptable cultivars in India. Though, the genesis of hybrid technology, the biggest breakthrough, enigma of stagnant productivity still remains unsolved. To sort this productivity disparity, genomic research along with conventional breeding was successfully initiated at ICRISAT. It endowed ample genomic resource providing insight in the pigeonpea genome combating production constraints in a precise and speedy manner. The availability of the draft genome sequence with a large‐scale marker resource, oriented the research towards trait mapping for flowering time, determinacy, fertility restoration, yield attributing traits and photo‐insensitivity. Defined core and mini‐core collection, still eased the pigeonpea breeding being accessible for existing genetic diversity and developing stress resistance. Modern genomic tools like next‐generation sequencing, genome‐wide selection helping in the appraisal of selection efficiency is leading towards next‐generation breeding, an awaited milestone in pigeonpea genetic enhancement. This paper emphasizes the ongoing genetic improvement in pigeonpea with an amalgam of conventional breeding as well as genomic research.     

Mapping association of molecular markers and sheath blight (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Rhizoctonia solani</Emphasis>) disease resistance and identification of novel resistance sources and loci in rice

Sheath blight (ShB) disease caused by Rhizoctonia solani is one of the major threats to rice crop world-wide. Progress in breeding for resistant rice varieties is limited due to lack of highly resistant germplasm against sheath blight. In present study, diverse rice landrace were phenotyped against R. solani and resistant and moderately resistant sources were identified from the panel of 134 germplasm pool. Landrace Nizam shait showed resistance, where as Bidar local-2, Jigguvaratiga, NavaliSali, Jaddu and Tetep exhibited moderate resistance. Population structure was analysed by genotyping the accessions using 63 genome wide Rice Microsatellite markers which divided the mapping panel into two groups. Association mapping using GLM?+?Q model of TASSEL indicated significant association between twenty-one marker loci on nine chromosomes with ShB resistance with phenotypic variation (R²) ranging 3.02–22.71 per cent. We identified 13 new markers to be associated with ShB resistance. The present work validates previously identified eight markers flanking different shB QTLs. None of the allele from the tested markers was unique and common among resistant and moderately resistant landraces identified in this work except allele 420 bp of RM337 and allele 310 bp of RM5556 noticed only in Tetep. Our findings predict the possible presence of unreported QTL region in marker interval of RM337 and RM5556 on chromosome 8 for ShB resistance in Tetep which invites further investigation.