title: Genomic Tools in Groundnut Breeding Program: Status and Perspectives.
abstract: Groundnut, a nutrient-rich food legume, is cultivated world over. It is valued for its good quality cooking oil, energy and protein rich food, and nutrient-rich fodder. Globally, groundnut improvement programs have developed varieties to meet the preferences of farmers, traders, processors, and consumers. Enhanced yield, tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses and quality parameters have been the target traits. Spurt in genetic information of groundnut was facilitated by development of molecular markers, genetic, and physical maps, generation of expressed sequence tags (EST), discovery of genes, and identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) for some important biotic and abiotic stresses and quality traits. The first groundnut variety developed using marker assisted breeding (MAB) was registered in 2003. Since then, USA, China, Japan, and India have begun to use genomic tools in routine groundnut improvement programs. Introgression lines that combine foliar fungal disease resistance and early maturity were developed using MAB. Establishment of marker-trait associations (MTA) paved way to integrate genomic tools in groundnut breeding for accelerated genetic gain. Genomic Selection (GS) tools are employed to improve drought tolerance and pod yield, governed by several minor effect QTLs. Draft genome sequence and low cost genotyping tools such as genotyping by sequencing (GBS) are expected to accelerate use of genomic tools to enhance genetic gains for target traits in groundnut.
authors.affiliation: International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics Patancheru, India.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Janila
authors.affiliation: International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics Patancheru, India.
authors.forename: Murali T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Variath
authors.affiliation: International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics Patancheru, India.
authors.forename: Manish K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Pandey
authors.affiliation: International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics Bamako, Mali.
authors.forename: Haile
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Desmae
authors.affiliation: International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics Kano, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Babu N
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Motagi
authors.affiliation: International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics Lilongwe, Malawi.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Okori
authors.affiliation: International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics Patancheru, India.
authors.forename: Surendra S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Manohar
authors.affiliation: Directorate of Groundnut Research Junagadh, India.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Rathnakumar
authors.affiliation: Directorate of Groundnut Research Junagadh, India.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Radhakrishnan
authors.affiliation: Oil Crops Research Institute Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Boshou
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics Patancheru, India.
authors.forename: Rajeev K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Varshney
keywords: breeding; genomics; groundnut; markers; selection; varieties