The Bambara Groundnut Genome

Abstract

The combined effects of climate change, increase in world population and dependence on a relatively small selection of crops, are threatening the global food security. Despite their limited promotion amongst farmers, seed companies and researchers, underutilised crops could provide alternative sources of nutritionally dense foods and aid in the quest for food production due to their resilience and natural adaptation to marginal environments that could be too harsh for staple crops. Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) is a protein-rich underutilised legume which has also long been recognised to be drought-resistant, capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen and producing yield in marginal soils. As a consequence of the rapid development of genomic technologies and their current accessibility, in this chapter we share the current progress in genomics using molecular tools, an overview of the genome sequence of bambara groundnut, future work incorporating next-generation sequencing technologies and bioinformatics, as well as an example that showcases the importance of linking trait data to the genome to benefit future breeding programmes