ICRISAT's global team of 51 scientists cracked the ancestor genome of groundnut.
Hyderabad: In a scientific breakthrough on DNA sequencing, ICRISAT's global team of 51 scientists cracked the ancestor genome of groundnut. The DNA sequencing will help in developing improved groundnut traits such as aflatoxin-free, nutrition-rich and allergen-free varieties and traits with increased pod and oil yield, drought and heat tolerance and greater disease resistance. The important findings have been published in the prestigious US journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researches from nine institutes in China, India, the US and Australia and ICRISAT too have decoded the diploid A-Genome.
Dr Rajeev Varshney, co-ordinator of Genome Sequencing Project and research director, Genetic Gains programme at ICRISAT, said: "This study has not just provided the full genome sequence to help plant breeders across the globe to develop more productive and more resilient groundnut varieties in a faster manner, but also provides us an insight to geocarpy, a reproductive process where the flowers grown on the stem go inside the soil and pod formations occur."
Dr David Bergvinson, director general, ICRISAT, said, "This will provide an efficient road map for sustainable and resilient groundnut production for improved livelihoods of small-hold farmers, particularly in the marginal environments of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa."
While expressing his happiness, Dr Liang said, "It has been a pleasure for us to work with ICRISAT and other institutes from China and the US to reach this important milestone in peanut research." Groundnut is grown in more than 100 countries and consumed the world over in one or other form. Globally, the crop is cultivated in 25.7million hectares with an annual production of about 42.3 million metric tonnes, achieving an average productivity of 1.6tons/hectare.
