Next generation breeding in pulses: Present status and future directions

Abstract

Human population growth in combination with changing patterns of global food consumption under climate change is posing formidable challenge to attaining sustainable global food security. Besides being economically viable sources of plant based protein for human consumption, pulses are also beneficial for the environment owing to their inherent capacity of nitrogen fixation. Hence, further development of pulses has become imperative in the vigorously transitional global scenario where flourishing anthropogenic activities are triggering irreplaceable depletion of natural resources. During past years, considerable attention has been given on the use of next generation sequencing for enriching the genomic resources in pulse crops including high-throughput DNA markers, candidate gene(s) and QTLs for predicting plant phenotypes, and whole genome sequences. With refinements in DNA sequencing technologies and computational analytical tools, the rapidly grown numbers of sequenced pulse genomes offer novel insights on crop evolution and breeding history. Integration of new-generation genomic and phenomic tools with generation acceleration procedures like genomic selection and speed breeding could greatly accelerate progress in pulses genetic improvement. The present review discusses current status and future scope of using next-generation breeding approaches in pulses that will cause not only an increase in the rate of developing climate-resilient superior cultivars but also help to reach to goal of global food security.