Genomic Tools in Pea Breeding Programs: Status and Perspectives

Abstract

Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is an annual cool-season legume and one of the oldest domesticated crops. Dry pea seeds contain 22–25% protein, complex starch and fiber constituents, and a rich array of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals which make them a valuable source for human consumption and livestock feed. Dry pea ranks third to common bean and chickpea as the most widely grown pulse in the world with more than 11 million tons produced in 2013. Pea breeding has achieved great success since the time of Mendel's experiments in the mid-1800s. However, several traits still require significant improvement for better yield stability in a larger growing area. Key breeding objectives in pea include improving biotic and abiotic stress resistance and enhancing yield components and seed quality. Taking advantage of the diversity present in the pea genepool, many mapping populations have been constructed in the last decades and efforts have been deployed to identify loci involved in the control of target traits and further introgress them into elite breeding materials. Pea now benefits from next-generation sequencing and high-throughput genotyping technologies that are paving the way for genome-wide association studies and genomic selection approaches. This review covers the significant development and deployment of genomic tools for pea breeding in recent years. Future prospects are discussed especially in light of current progress toward deciphering the pea genome.

Exploring the genetics of lesion and nodal resistance in pea (Pisum sativum L.) to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum using genome‐wide association studies and RNA‐Seq

“…Pea ( Pisum sativum L.) is an important legume crop in the United States (Tayeh et al., ), and white mold continuously causes substantial damage and yield reduction (Biddle, ). Sclerotinia sclerotiorum infection begins when ascospores of S. sclerotiorum colonize blooms and invade through petioles into the stem.…”

“…Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is an important legume crop in the United States (Tayeh et al, 2015), and white mold continuously causes substantial damage and yield reduction (Biddle, 2001).…”

Accelerating genetic gains in legumes for the development of prosperous smallholder agriculture: integrating genomics, phenotyping, systems modelling and agronomy

“…The legume community has been successful in developing several molecular breeding products despite the late arrival of genomic resources and trait-associated markers (Varshney et al, 2013a,b;Pandey et al, 2016;Varshney, 2016). Some key examples include resistance to Fusarium wilt and ascochyta blight (Varshney et al, 2013b) and improved drought tolerance (Varshney et al, 2013a) in chickpea; resistance to nematode and high oleic acid (Chu et al, 2011), resistance to leaf rust , and resistance to high oleic acid (Janila et al, 2016) in groundnut; resistance to rust disease (Khanh et al, 2013), soybean mosaic virus (Saghai-Maroof et al, 2008;Shi et al, 2009;Parhe et al, 2017), and low phytate (Landau-Ellis and Pantalone, 2009) in soybean; Striga resistance and seed size in cowpea (Lucas et al, 2015; see Boukar et al, 2016); pyramid genes for resistance to ascochyta blight and anthracnose in lentil (Taran et al, 2003); powdery mildew resistance (Ghafoor and McPhee 2012), lodging resistance (Zhang et al, 2006), frost tolerance (see Tayeh et al, 2015b), and Aphanomyces root rot resistance (Lavaud et al, 2015) in pea; and resistance to common bacterial blight disease (Miklas et al, 2000(Miklas et al, , 2006Mutlu et al, 2005;O'Boyle and Kelly, 2007), rust and viruses (Stavely, 2000), rust, anthracnose, and angular leaf spot (Oliveira et al, 2008), rust (Feleiro et al, 2001), and anthracnose (Alzate-Marin et al, 1999) in common bean. Several of these improved lines have either been released or are in the release pipeline in different countries.…”

Genomic and transcriptomic approaches toward plant selection

“…In pea, strategies of using SNPs, QTLs and GWAS toward genomic selection seems to be as a proficient approach that can help to generate more efficient peas (Tayeh et al, 2015). In rice, genomic selection has been applied successfully to breeding programs in an efficient pattern by using GWAS, QTLs and GBS method.…”