Global Team Cracks Genetic Code to develop High-Yielding, Climate Resilient Chickpea

ICRISAT reports a major breakthrough, as scientists from 21 research institutes globally, successfully complete sequencing of 429 chickpea lines from 45 countries to identify genes for tolerance to drought and heat. The efforts equipped the team with key insights into the crop’s genetic diversity, domestication and agronomic traits. The study also mapped the origins of chickpea and its ascent in Asia and Africa.

The team, led by ICRISAT in close collaboration with BGI-Shenzhen, China, involved 39 scientists from leading research institutes world over. This is the largest-ever exercise of whole-genome re-sequencing of chickpea.

What this means to the agricultural community is potential development of newer varieties of chickpea with higher yields, which are disease and pest resistant, and better able to withstand the vagaries of weather. The results of the three-years effort have now been published in Nature Genetics online with the title, ‘Re-sequencing of 429 chickpea accessions from 45 countries provides insights into genome diversity, domestication and agronomic traits’.

More than 90% of chickpea cultivation area is in South Asia. Drought and increasing temperatures are said to cause more than 70% yield loss in chickpea globally. Chickpea being a cool season crop is likely to suffer further reduction in productivity due to rising temperatures.

As Dr Rajeev K Varshney, the Research Program Director, observed: “All our success was made possible by our collaborations across the globe. With support from donors and partners worldwide, we at the ICRISAT’s Center of Excellence in Genomics & Systems Biology (CEGSB), have made rapid strides in genomics research and sequenced genomes of nine crops. This includes pearl millet, groundnut, chickpea and pigeonpea which are important for the nutrition and livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa and India“.

The American Society of Agronomy (ASA) conferred its prestigious 2018 fellowship on Dr Rajeev K Varshney.

This year Rajeev will be a guest speaker at our annual Hugh Bunting Memorial Lecture, November 13th, being arranged by TAAI and the University of Reading. Members and guests are welcome.