Indian Council of Agricultural Research Develops First Fully Sequenced Pigeon Pea Genome
Summary
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has announced India’s first fully sequenced telomere-to-telomere reference genome of the pigeon pea variety Asha. The breakthrough is expected to speed up development of climate-resilient, high-yielding and more nutritious pulse varieties.
Key Points
- ICAR announced India’s first fully sequenced telomere-to-telomere reference genome of pigeon pea variety Asha.
- The genome contains 752.65 million base pairs, covers all 11 chromosomes and has over 99.9% transcriptome mapping accuracy.
- The sequence will support gene discovery, molecular breeding and genome-editing work for improved pigeon pea varieties.
- The development is intended to strengthen India’s pulse self-sufficiency drive.
