Pigeonpea Genome: First Draft Published

The first draft of the pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) geneome of the variety ‘Asha’ was published last week in two separate but similar reports.  Singh et al. reported 10x coverage of the genome revealing 510.81 Mb of of the 833.07 Mb genome size and 47,004 protein coding genes.  Another  study published almost simultaneously by Varshney et al. in an International collaboration lead by the ICRISAT reported 72.7% (605.78 Mb) of the 833.07 Mb pigeonpea genome with 48,680 predicted protein coding genes.  Both studies found number of disease resistance genes and an enriched set of genetic markers which will help the legume breeders in improving pigeonpea varieties.

Pigeonpea is an important grain legume of the South Asia (Indian subcontinent), South-East Asia and East Africa.  According to the lead author Dr. NK Singh, this is the first plant genome sequencing project completed entirely through a network of Indian institutions supported by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.  Author Dr. RK Varshney reports that this is the first plant genome project lead by the CGIAR and the ICRISAT.