Chickpea Genomics

As precise phenotyping is essential and the cost of generating phenotyping data at every generation is very expensive, recent advances in genomics technologies and the availability of a wide range of genotyping platforms have made the cost of genotyping much less expensive compared with phenotyping. The recent developments in sequencing technologies have manifold increased the repertoire of various types of markers that are available in chickpea including SSRs, SNPs, DArTs, hundreds of thousands transcript reads and BAC-end sequences saturated genetic maps, QTL maps as well as physical maps, and the sequencing of both kabuli and desi type has greatly helped in using marker-assisted technologies to be applied in plant breeding. Germplasm resequencing for identification of genome-wide SNPs and their subsequent utilization in genomic selection has the potential to break the yield barrier being experienced in chickpea and many other crops. Genomic-assisted breeding for marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC) for introgressing QTL region, marker-assisted recurrent selection, gene pyramiding, marker-assisted selection (MAS), and genomic selection can now be taken up in chickpea. The conventional plant breeding should take these tools to make greater genetic gains, increase selection potential, and have faster breeding cycles so that the genetic improvement gains are increased in chickpea