Bologna, Italy - 24-27 April 2010

P3.89 - Importance of marker-assisted selection for the improvement of genetic

resources of grain legumes in
India: An overview

Singh AK, Sharma JP, Dwivedi MC, Singh SK, Shukla S

Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology - J, Main Campus, Chatha, Jammu – 180 009
[J&K] India

India is known as a center of diversity hosting various flora and fauna. Traditional farmers living in the country highly
varied agro-ecological zones have developed various farming systems that are characterized by the high degree of
interand intra-specific crop diversity across space and time. A wide range of crop diversity has been maintained by
traditional farming societies in a sustainable way through the accumulated experience and interaction of farmers with
their natural environment and without the need for technical scientific knowledge or external commercial inputs. The
pulses are one of them and are the part of said cropping systems all over the country because these crops fit in well
in the crop rotation and crop mixture followed. The pulse crops are widely grown in varying conditions with low and
irregular yields. The grain legumes have a larger seed size with higher protein content than cereals but are lower
yielding due to the lack of progress in grain legume improvement due to the lack of genetic variability, improper
technological packages of improved high input seeds, inorganic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Susceptibility of
the legumes crops to various biotic and abiotic stresses, seriously eroding genetic diversity and restricted distribution
of progenitors has limited yield potential of the grain legumes for years. Therefore, breeders dealing with grain
legumes throughout the country and world focus on increasing yield potential by pyramiding genes for resistance/
tolerance into elite germplasm through marker assisted breeding or markers assisted selection. The potential benefits
of using markers linked to genes of interest in breeding programmes for grain legumes, thus moving from phenotype
based towards genotype-based selection have been obvious for many decades. However, realization of this potential
has been limited by the lack of markers. Plant disease resistance characters controlled by multiple genes have
historically been difficult to study. The complex nature of host-parasite interactions, complicated further by several
resistance loci, has made it extremely difficult to analyze oligogenic and polygenic disease resistance (Geiger and
Heun, 1989). Gene number and the effect of heterosis have been examined for complex resistance to wheat leaf rust
(Puccinia recondita f. sp. tritici) (Lee and Shaner, 1985), and the level of dominance involved in resistance to
powdery mildew of barley (Erysiphe graminis f. sp. hordei) has been estimated (Jones et al., 1982).
Nevertheless, these studies did not pinpoint specific genomic regions involved in resistance or characterize the
effects of individual loci on disease response. With the advent of DNA-based genetic markers in the late 1970s, the
situation changed and researchers could, for the first time, begin to identify large numbers of markers dispersed
throughout the genetic material of any species of interest and use the markers to detect associations with traits of
interest, thus allowing MAS finally to become a reality. Efforts to employ MAS have been initiated, however, the
saturation of genomic areas of interest with markers, and their polymorphism in different genetic backgrounds; the
mapping of resistance genes for biotic stresses not sited in current genomic maps which require the development of
new RIL populations; the integration of genes or QTL controlling resistance already located in different genetic
resources while simultaneously considering the importance of pathotype differentiation for the pathogen and mapping
and integration into the current genomic map of genes or QTL controlling tolerance to abiotic stresses such as
drought, earliness, chilling, freezing and salinity, in addition to molecular markers tagging these genes is of prime
importance. The genetic make-up and genome organization of related species of grain legumes is often sufficiently
conserved, allowing alignments of the genomes. Genome alignment enables research communities to predict the
presence of genes, build physical maps, and conduct comparative genome analysis among and between species.
The recent genome sequencing of various organisms has enhanced the rate of new gene identification, annotation,
and functional validation. Genome information available in the public domain has been used extensively in
comparative genome studies with the help of bioinformatics tools. The implications of these technologies the
challenges and projection, the particular functions of diversity in sustaining production, the need for conserving and
utilization of landraces and marker assisted selection (MAS) through precision breeding play an imperative role in the
improvement of grain legumes.