Winged bean, Psophocarpus tetragonolobus (L.) DC., is analogous to soybean in yield and nutritional quality, proving a valuable alternative to soybean in tropical regions of the world. The presence of anti-nutritional factors and high costs associated with indeterminate plant habit have been major concerns in this crop. But occurrence of good genetic variability in germplasm collections offers precious resources for winged bean breeding. However, lack of germplasm characterization is hindering such efforts. From a genomic standpoint, winged bean has been little studied despite rapid advancement in legume genomics in the last decade. Exploiting modern genomics/breeding approaches for genetic resource characterization and the breeding of early maturing, high yielding, determinate varieties which are disease resistant and free of anti-nutritional factors along with developing consumer friendly value-added products of local significance are great challenges and opportunities in the future that would boost cultivation of winged bean in the tropics. We review past efforts and future prospects towards winged bean improvement.

Large cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxb.) is an economically important cash crop that provides a livelihood option for the rural communities in the Khangchendzonga Landscape (KL), including Sikkim and supports a large value-chain of diverse stakeholders across the globe. This study explores the influence of elevation on yield-related traits of the large cardamom cultivars grown at different elevations in Sikkim. We evaluated twelve morphometric traits, including eight yield-related traits (number of capsules per spike, capsule length, capsule width, fresh capsule weight, dry capsule weight, number of seeds per locule, fresh seed weight, and dry seed weight) in five large cardamom cultivars (Dzongu Golsey, Sawney, Seremna, Ramsey, and Varlangey) from Sikkim, cultivated at 41 different locations with elevation ranging between 975–2069 m asl. The statistical analysis indicated a significant variability (P < 0.05) in morphometric traits including yield-related traits (except capsule length and width) in five large cardamom cultivars. The cultivars cultivated at an elevation below 1500 m, such as Dzongu Golsey, Sawney, and Seremna, had higher values for yield-related traits than those growing at elevations above 1500 m, and the yield-related traits were negatively correlated with the elevation. Likewise, Varlangey and Ramsey, cultivated above 1500 m elevation, performed better than the same cultivars grown below 1500 m of elevation and depicted a positive correlation between elevation and yield-related traits. The study revealed that the elevation determines the performance of the larger cardamom progression, and suggests cultivating the cultivars in their suitable elevation range for better productivity.

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The Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC. can meet three burgeoning needs of tropical agriculture: low-cost protein source, high-value medicinal plant, and an excellent green manure cover crop. But like other underutilized crops, it lacks modern breeding resources. Identifying marker-trait associations (MTAs) can prompt marker-assisted breeding paving a way for development of the improved varieties. Recent studies have demonstrated feasibility of identifying MTAs using a small number of accessions (<100) triggering the hope for resource poor crops. Taking cues from there, we characterized a panel of 70 M. pruriens accessions across two consecutive years and performed association analysis for 16 phenotypic traits using 66 genic-microsatellite markers. The results showed significant phenotypic (P < 0.05) and genetic diversity (Shannon’s information index, I = 0.62) in our germplasm collection. Many of the tested traits were highly heritable (42.86% to 99.93%). A total of 15 MTAs were detected at an adjusted significance level of P < 5.55 × 10-3 for nine economic traits such as – seed length, seed thickness, seed width, hundred seed weight, seed yield per plant, inflorescence length, flower buds per inflorescence, flower length, and petiole length with phenotypic variance explained (PVE) ranging from 14.72 to 31.12%. Their annotation using the Arabidopsis genome database affirmed reliability of our MTAs. This is the first report on association mapping in M. pruriens and results are expected to galvanize marker-assisted breeding as well as mining of candidate genes in this promising legume.