Transgenic Interventions in Peanut Crop Improvement

Legumes rank third in world crop production in which the major constraint to crop productivity is attributed to biotic and abiotic stress. Peanut, also knows as groundnut (arachis hypogaea L.) is a major oilseed crop in the world, both for oil and as a protein source. Host plant resistance provides the most effective and economic option to manage stress tolerance in peanut which is also time consuming involving expensive agronomic practices. However , for many biotice and abiotic stresses, effective resistance gene(s) in cultivated peanut have not been identified. Success in breeding for better adapted varieties to biotic/abiotic stresses depend upon the combined efforts of various research domains like plant and cell physiology, molecular biology, genetics and breeding. Moreover, availability of known genotypes with natural resistance to stresses is a prerequisite for the successful breeding program. With a few exceptions, crop improvement in peanut programs through conventional breeding has received little progress