Orphan legume crops enter the genomics era!
Many of the world's most important food legumes are grown in arid and semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia, where crop productivity is hampered by biotic and abiotic stresses. Until recently, these crops have also suffered from a dearth of genomic and molecular-genetic resources and thus were 'orphans' of the genome revolution. However, the community of legume researchers has begun a concerted effort to change this situation. The driving force is a series of international collaborations that benefit from recent advances in genome sequencing and genotyping technologies. The focus of these activities is the development of genome-scale data sets that can be used in high-throughput approaches to facilitate genomics-assisted breeding in these legumes.
Varshney
Rajeev K
RK
International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru 502324, A.P., India. r.k.varshney@cgiar.org
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Timothy J
TJ
Singh
Nagendra K
NK
Hoisington
David A
DA
Cook
Douglas R
DR
D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000235:genetics*; D007887:Fabaceae / Q000235:genetics*; D018745:Genome, Plant; D023281:Genomics; D005838:Genotype