ICAR develops India's first complete pigeonpea genome to aid pulse breeding
ICAR has developed India's first fully annotated T2T reference genome of pigeonpea, paving the way for faster breeding of climate-resilient, high-yielding varieties
 "ICAR develops India's first complete pigeonpea genome to aid pulse breeding")
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed India's first fully annotated telomere-to-telomere (T2T) reference genome of pigeonpea (matar), which is expected to speed up the development of climate-resilient, high-yielding and nutritionally superior varieties of the country's second most important pulse crop.
As per reports, telomere-to-telomere sequencing is an advanced DNA sequencing and assembly method that creates complete, gap-free genomic sequences from one end of a chromosome to the other.
The genome sequence of the pigeonpea variety named 'Asha' has also been approved as the global reference genome, making it India's first fully annotated T2T reference genome for the crop, an official statement said.
The latest milestone builds on the work of ICAR's National Institute for Plant Biotechnology (NIPB), which produced the world's first draft genome of a pulse crop in 2011. An improved version followed in 2017, while the latest T2T sequence provides the crop's most comprehensive genetic blueprint.
ICAR said the reference genome would serve as a key national genomic resource for identifying genes linked to yield, nutrition and stress tolerance, enabling faster development of improved pigeonpea varieties and strengthening India's pulse improvement programme.