New Delhi, January 28
In a major breakthrough that promises to improve yields and quality besides greater drought and disease tolerance of the crop, scientists led by Hyderabad-based ICRISAT have decoded the genome of chickpea or ‘chana’, the highest consumed legume in India.

India is not just the highest consumer but also the largest producer and importer of chickpea. The scientific milestone has now paved the way for the development of high-yielding varieties of chickpea breeders, increasing it from the current 800 kg per hectare to doubling it to a possible 2 tonne per hectare, reducing the country’s dependence on imports, scientists from International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) said, announcing the breakthrough here in Delhi.

About 49 scientists in 10 countries, including the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), collaborated in the genome analysis by the International Chickpea Genome Sequencing Consortium (ICGSC).

The genome mapping of a ‘kabuli’ (large-seeded) chickpea variety is in fact an effort by a team of 23 academic institutes, including three Indian research centres.

The discovery of 28,269 genes in 90 genomes can now be exploited to develop grain types with improved traits like yield, drought-resistance, nutrition and even taste. In short, with the genetic knowledge in hand, breeders can also now customise or say “design” the ‘chana’ with the right amount of proteins and fortifying with minerals and iron to make it more nutritious.

According to lead author of the paper, ICRISAT director Rajeeev Varshney, the study will provide access to good genes to speed up breeding and genome regions and also bring the genetic diversity back in breeding lines. Scientists may also look at improving the plant architecture so that they can be harvested mechanically.

Chickpea is the second largest cultivated grain food legume in the world.

According to Varshney, the information will be used by breeders across the world for the development of superior varieties with enhanced drought and disease tolerance. With more than 85 lakh tonnes of annual production, India is the world’s highest producer of chickpea. Even though the area under chickpea increased from 6.45 million hectare in 1992-93 to 8.56 million hectare in 2009-10, the country still imports chickpea to meet the demand.

The map of the structure and functions of the genes will reveal clues on how crop can be improved for sustainable and resilient food production-extremely important for small and marginal farmers in the wake of threat of climate change. In most parts of the world, chickpea is cultivated in semi-arid environments. Its susceptibility to drought and debilitating fungal diseases have restricted yields, which is considerably below the theoretical potential.

The genome sequencing can reduce the time to breed a new variety with market-preferred traits. At the moment it takes eight to 10 years to breed a new chickpea variety which can be reduced to three to four years.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is the world’s second most widely grown legume crop after soybean. According to Varshney, since majority of chickpea production is done in semi-arid tropic regions, the major emphasis will be to improve drought tolerance in chickpea. “We are in process of developing superior lines through molecular breeding,” he said.

This is the second food legume genome sequenced in India after pigeon pea.