Using genetic and genomic resources to broaden the genetic base of cultivated groundnut

Groundnut is highly self-pollinated tetraploid crop with 2n = 40 chromosomes and ~2800 Mb genome. ICRISAT genebank at Patancheru, India has the largest collection: 14,968 cultivated accessions from 92 countries and 451 wild relative accessions representing nine sections and 44 species. For enhancing the use of germplasm, core and mini core collections were developed that when evaluated identified several new sources of variation for agronomic traits and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Further, a composite collection of 1000 accessions, which also included 184 mini core accessions, has been molecularly profiled using 21 SSRs and formed a reference set of 300 most diverse accessions (http//www.generationcp.org). Genetic populations are being developed for mapping of genes associated with beneficial traits. These are useful resources to analyze genetic relationships and identify marker trait associations using linkage disequilibrium and association mapping. Unlike past, several genomic resources are now available to research community: high throughput platforms including DArT technology, SSRs, BAC libraries, ESTs, and genetic linkage maps