SUMMARYCicer arietinum L. (chickpea) is the third most important food legume crop. We have generated the draft sequence of a desi-type chickpea genome using next-generation sequencing platforms, bacterial artificial chromosome end sequences and a genetic map. The 520-Mb assembly covers 70% of the predicted 740-Mb genome length, and more than 80% of the gene space. Genome analysis predicts the presence of 27 571 genes and 210 Mb as repeat elements. The gene expression analysis performed using 274 million RNA-Seq reads identified several tissue-specific and stress-responsive genes. Although segmental duplicated blocks are observed, the chickpea genome does not exhibit any indication of recent whole-genome duplication. Nucleotide diversity analysis provides an assessment of a narrow genetic base within the chickpea cultivars. We have developed a resource for genetic markers by comparing the genome sequences of one wild and three cultivated chickpea genotypes. The draft genome sequence is expected to facilitate genetic enhancement and breeding to develop improved chickpea varieties.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is an important food legume crop but lags in the availability of genomic resources. In this study, we have generated about 2 million high-quality sequences of average length of 372 bp using pyrosequencing technology. The optimization of de novo assembly clearly indicated that hybrid assembly of long-read and short-read primary assemblies gave better results. The hybrid assembly generated a set of 34,760 transcripts with an average length of 1,020 bp representing about 4.8% (35.5 Mb) of the total chickpea genome. We identified more than 4,000 simple sequence repeats, which can be developed as functional molecular markers in chickpea. Putative function and Gene Ontology terms were assigned to at least 73.2% and 71.0% of chickpea transcripts, respectively. We have also identified several chickpea transcripts that showed tissue-specific expression and validated the results using real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. Based on sequence comparison with other species within the plant kingdom, we identified two sets of lineage-specific genes, including those conserved in the Fabaceae family (legume specific) and those lacking significant similarity with any non chickpea species (chickpea specific). Finally, we have developed a Web resource, Chickpea Transcriptome Database, which provides public access to the data and results reported in this study. The strategy for optimization of de novo assembly presented here may further facilitate the transcriptome sequencing and characterization in other organisms. Most importantly, the data and results reported in this study will help to accelerate research in various areas of genomics and implementing breeding programs in chickpea.

SummaryThe transcriptome of cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), an important crop legume, has recently been sequenced. Here, we report sequencing of the transcriptome of wild chickpea, C. reticulatum (PI489777), the progenitor of cultivated chickpea, by GS-FLX 454 technology. The optimized assembly of C. reticulatum transcriptome generated 37 265 transcripts in total with an average length of 946 bp. A total of 4072 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) could be identified in these transcript sequences, of which at least 561 SSRs were polymorphic between C. arietinum and C. reticulatum. In addition, a total of 36 446 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified after optimization of probability score, quality score, read depth and consensus base ratio. Several of these SSRs and SNPs could be associated with tissue-specific and transcription factor encoding transcripts. A high proportion (92-94%) of polymorphic SSRs and SNPs identified between the two chickpea species were validated successfully. Further, the estimation of synonymous substitution rates of orthologous transcript pairs suggested that the speciation event for divergence of C. arietinum and C. reticulatum may have happened approximately 0.53 million years ago. The results of our study provide a rich resource for exploiting genetic variations in chickpea for breeding programmes.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important crop legume plant with high nutritional value. The transcriptomes of desi and wild chickpea have already been sequenced. In this study, we sequenced the transcriptome of kabuli chickpea, C. arietinum (genotype ICCV2), having higher commercial value, using GS-FLX Roche 454 and Illumina technologies. The assemblies of both Roche 454 and Illumina datasets were optimized using various assembly programs and parameters. The final optimized hybrid assembly generated 43,389 transcripts with an average length of 1065 bp and N50 length of 1653 bp representing 46.2 Mb of kabuli chickpea transcriptome. We identified a total of 5409 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) in these transcript sequences. Among these, at least 130 and 493 SSRs were polymorphic with desi (ICC4958) and wild (PI489777) chickpea, respectively. In addition, a total of 1986 and 37,954 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were predicted in kabuli/desi and kabuli/wild genotypes, respectively. The SNP frequency was 0.043 SNP per kb for kabuli/desi and 0.821 SNP per kb for kabuli/wild, reflecting very low genetic diversity in chickpea. Further, SSRs and SNPs present in tissue-specific and transcription factor encoding transcripts have been identified. The experimental validation of a selected set of polymorphic SSRs and SNPs exhibited high intra-specific polymorphism potential between desi and kabuli chickpea, suggesting their utility in large-scale genotyping applications. The kabuli chickpea gene index assembled, and SSRs and SNPs identified in this study will serve as useful genomic resource for genetic improvement of chickpea.

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