Crop geneticists sequence genome of peanut

The International Peanut Genome Initiative (IPGI), a multi-national group of crop geneticists working in cooperation for several years, has successfully sequenced the genome of peanut.

The new peanut genome sequence will be available to researchers and plant breeders across the globe to aid in the breeding of more productive, more resilient peanut varieties, according to the Hyderabad headquartered International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat).

Understanding the structure of the peanut’s genome is expected to lay the groundwork for new varieties with traits like added disease resistance and drought tolerance.

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea), also called groundnut, is an important crop both commercially and nutritionally. Globally, farmers tend about 24 million hectares of peanut each year, producing about 40 million tonnes.

While the oil and protein rich legume is seen as a cash crop in the developed world, it remains an important sustenance crop in developing nations.

Scott Jackson, director of the University of Georgia (UGA) Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, serves as chair of the IPGI, which brings together scientists from the United States, China, Brazil, India and Israel to delineate peanut genome sequences.

“The peanut crop is important in the United States, but it’s very important for developing nations as well. In many areas, it is a primary calorie source for families and a cash crop for farmers,”Jackson stated in a press release on Thursday.  

“Rich in protein and edible oil, peanut is central to the financial and nutritional well-being of hundreds of millions of farmers and consumers across the semi-arid tropics of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa,”  director general of Icrisat, William Dar, said.

Peanut is one of Icrisat’s mandate crops, along with chickpea, pigeon pea, sorghum and pearl millet.