The Key to the Future Lies in the Past: Insights from Grain Legume Domestication and Improvement Should Inform Future Breeding Strategies.

Crop domestication is a co-evolutionary process that has rendered plants and animals significantly dependent on human interventions for survival and propagation. Grain legumes have played an important role in the development of Neolithic agriculture some 12,000 years ago. Despite being early companions of cereals in the origin and evolution of agriculture, the understanding of grain legume domestication has lagged behind that of cereals.

Genomics Enabled Breeding Strategies for Major Biotic Stresses in Pea ( L.).

Pea ( L.) is one of the most important and productive cool season pulse crops grown throughout the world. Biotic stresses are the crucial constraints in harnessing the potential productivity of pea and warrant dedicated research and developmental efforts to utilize omics resources and advanced breeding techniques to assist rapid and timely development of high-yielding multiple stress-tolerant-resistant varieties.

Features and applications of haplotypes in crop breeding.

Climate change with altered pest-disease dynamics and rising abiotic stresses threatens resource-constrained agricultural production systems worldwide. Genomics-assisted breeding (GAB) approaches have greatly contributed to enhancing crop breeding efficiency and delivering better varieties. Fast-growing capacity and affordability of DNA sequencing has motivated large-scale germplasm sequencing projects, thus opening exciting avenues for mining haplotypes for breeding applications.

Global gene expression analysis of pigeonpea with male sterility conditioned by A cytoplasm.

Cytoplasmic male sterility(CMS), a maternally inherited trait, provides a promising means to harness yield gains associated with hybrid vigor. In pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Huth], nine types of sterility-inducing cytoplasm have been reported, of which A and A have been successfully deployed in hybrid breeding.

Designing Future Crops: Genomics-Assisted Breeding Comes of Age.

Over the past decade, genomics-assisted breeding (GAB) has been instrumental in harnessing the potential of modern genome resources and characterizing and exploiting allelic variation for germplasm enhancement and cultivar development. Sustaining GAB in the future (GAB 2.0) will rely upon a suite of new approaches that fast-track targeted manipulation of allelic variation for creating novel diversity and facilitate their rapid and efficient incorporation in crop improvement programs.

Genome-wide comparative transcriptome analysis of the A4-CMS line ICPA 2043 and its maintainer ICPB 2043 during the floral bud development of pigeonpea.

Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) offers a unique system to understand cytoplasmic nuclear crosstalk, and is also employed for exploitation of hybrid vigor in various crops. Pigeonpea A4-CMS, a predominant source of male sterility, is being used for efficient hybrid seed production. The molecular mechanisms of CMS trait remain poorly studied in pigeonpea.

Introgression of "QTL-hotspot" region enhances drought tolerance and grain yield in three elite chickpea cultivars.

With an aim of enhancing drought tolerance using a marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC) approach, we introgressed the "QTL-hotspot" region from ICC 4958 accession that harbors quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for several drought-tolerance related traits into three elite Indian chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivars: Pusa 372, Pusa 362, and DCP 92-3. Of eight simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers in the QTL-hotspot region, two to three polymorphic markers were used for foreground selection with respective cross-combinations.

Potential of conservation agriculture modules for energy conservation and sustainability of rice-based production systems of Indo-Gangetic Plain region.

Rice-based cropping systems are the most energy-intensive production systems in South Asia. Sustainability of the rice-based cropping systems is nowadays questioned with declining natural resource base, soil degradation, environmental pollution, and declining factor productivity. As a consequence, the search for energy and resource conservation agro-techniques is increasing for sustainable and cleaner production.

Genetic Dissection and Identification of Candidate Genes for Salinity Tolerance Using Axiom Array in Chickpea.

Globally, chickpea production is severely affected by salinity stress. Understanding the genetic basis for salinity tolerance is important to develop salinity tolerant chickpeas. A recombinant inbred line (RIL) population developed using parental lines ICCV 10 (salt-tolerant) and DCP 92-3 (salt-sensitive) was screened under field conditions to collect information on agronomy, yield components, and stress tolerance indices.

Impact of conservation tillage in rice-based cropping systems on soil aggregation, carbon pools and nutrients.

Tillage intensive cropping practices have deteriorated soil physical quality and decreased soil organic carbon (SOC) levels in rice-growing areas of South Asia. Consequently, crop productivity has declined over the years demonstrating the need for sustainable alternatives. Given that, a field experiment was conducted for six years to assess the impact of four tillage based crop establishment treatments [puddled transplant rice followed by conventional tillage in wheat/maize (CTTPR-CT), non-puddled transplant rice followed by zero-tillage in wheat/maize (NPTPR-ZT), zero-till transplant rice followed by zero-tillage in wheat/maize (ZTTPR-ZT), zero-tillage direct seeded rice followed by zero-tillage in wheat/maize (ZTDSR-ZT)], two residue management treatments [residue removal, residue retention (~33%)], and two cropping systems [rice-wheat, rice-maize] on soil aggregation, carbon pools, nutrient availability, and crop productivity.

Molecular Mapping of QTLs for Heat Tolerance in Chickpea.

Chickpea ( L.), a cool-season legume, is increasingly affected by heat-stress at reproductive stage due to changes in global climatic conditions and cropping systems. Identifying quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for heat tolerance may facilitate breeding for heat tolerant varieties.