Mining legume germplasm for genetic gains: An Indian perspective

Abstract

Legumes play a significant role in food and nutritional security and contribute to environmental sustainability. Although legumes are highly beneficial crops, it has not yet been possible to enhance their yield and production to a satisfactory level. Amid a rising population and low yield levels, per capita average legume consumption in India has fallen by 71% over the last 50 years, and this has led to protein-related malnutrition in a large segment of the Indian population, especially women and children. Several factors have hindered attempts to achieve yield enhancement in grain legumes, including biotic and abiotic pressures, a lack of good ideotypes, less amenability to mechanization, poorer responsiveness to fertilizer input, and a poor genetic base. Therefore, there is a need to mine the approximately 0.4 million ex situ collections of legumes that are being conserved in gene banks globally for identification of ideal donors for various traits. The Indian National Gene Bank conserves over 63,000 accessions of legumes belonging to 61 species. Recent initiatives have been undertaken in consortia mode with the aim of unlocking the genetic potential of ex situ collections and conducting large-scale germplasm characterization and evaluation analyses. We assume that large-scale phenotyping integrated with omics-based science will aid the identification of target traits and their use to enhance genetic gains. Additionally, in cases where the genetic base of major legumes is narrow, wild relatives have been evaluated, and these are being exploited through pre-breeding. Thus far, >200 accessions of various legumes have been registered as unique donors for various traits of interest.

Breeding for Biotic Stress Resistance in Pea

“…Breeding requires the availability of germplasm with sufficient diversity for the desired traits and affordable screening methods. Large germplasm collections, amounting to over 60,000 accessions and encompassing wild, landrace, breeding lines, and mutants, are maintained in a number of gene banks, constituting a valuable pre-breeding resource [140][141][142][143][144]. Pea diversity held in gene banks has been characterized using morphological descriptors and agronomic traits.…”

Study on Genetic Variability and Heritability in F3 Population of Yard Long Bean (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis (L.) Verdcourt) for Yield and its Components

“…Globally, Brazil is the leading producer of yard long beans. In India, which contributes about 28.12% of the world's grain legume production, the annual yield is approximately 23.37 million tonnes from around 29 million hectares of cultivated land [5]. "In India, yardlong beans are predominantly grown in Kerala, Karnataka, and Maharashtra.…”

Genotypic and Physiological Evaluation of Mungbean (Vigna radiata) for Yield and Heat Tolerance

“…Mungbean is widely grown in Asia, South America and some parts of Africa for its edible seeds and sprouts (Chaudhary et al 2022). Globally, mungbean cultivation covers 7.3 million hectares with average production of 6 million tons (Parida et al 2023). Yield reduction in pulses is in uenced by various climatic factors as well as low tolerance to abiotic stress.…”