Pigeon pea Genetic Resources and Its Utilization in India, Current Status and Future Prospects

Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millspaugh) is an important grain legume crop of the semi-arid regions and is also recognized as the second most important pulse crop in India. Realizing the significance of genetic resources, large number of germplasm lines have been collected, conserved, characterized and evaluated for various morpho-agronomical traits using the minimal descriptors by the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources New Delhi, India. Genetic resources of Pigeon pea have also been screened for resistance to several biotic stresses like Fusarium wilt, Phytophthora blight and sterility mosaic disease and resistant lines have been identified. A core collection comprising 1290 accessions and mini core set of 146 accessions developed at ICRISAT, India showed wide spectrum of variation for grain yield and its important component traits, which may facilitate their utilization in breeding programmes. Narrow genetic base of cultivated Pigeon pea varieties and yield losses caused by several biotic and abiotic stresses still remain the major concerns. Introduction of useful traits from the wild relatives of Pigeon pea like, C. platycarpus, C. scarbaeaides, C. acutifolius and C. lineatus and use of biotechnological tools, wherever necessary, have been suggested to broaden the genetic base of commercial cultivars. Useful variants were also identified using mutation breeding that resulted in the release of five mutant cultivars for commercial cultivation in India. About 65 Pigeon pea varieties have been released in India and 57 selections provided by ICRISAT to various Pigeon pea growing countries for their commercial cultivation. Genomic resources and genome sequence analysis predicted about 48,680 genes which may be exploited for further improvement of Pigeon pea.