The competitiveness of peanuts in domestic and global markets has been threatened by losses in productivity and quality that are attributed to diseases, pests, environmental stresses and allergy or food safety issues. Narrow genetic diversity and a deficiency of polymorphic DNA markers severely hindered construction of dense genetic maps and quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping in order to deploy linked markers in marker-assisted peanut improvement. The U.S. Peanut Genome Initiative (PGI) was launched in 2004, and expanded to a global effort in 2006 to address these issues through coordination of international efforts in genome research beginning with molecular marker development and improvement of map resolution and coverage. Ultimately, a peanut genome sequencing project was launched in 2012 by the Peanut Genome Consortium (PGC). We reviewed the progress for accelerated development of peanut genomic resources in peanut, such as generation of expressed sequenced tags (ESTs) (252,832 ESTs as December 2012 in the public NCBI EST database), development of molecular markers (over 15,518 SSRs), and construction of peanut genetic linkage maps, in particular for cultivated peanut. Several consensus genetic maps have been constructed, and there are examples of recent international efforts to develop high density maps. An international reference consensus genetic map was developed recently with 897 marker loci based on 11 published mapping populations. Furthermore, a high-density integrated consensus map of cultivated peanut and wild diploid relatives also has been developed, which was enriched further with 3693 marker loci on a single map by adding information from five new genetic mapping populations to the published reference consensus map.Key Words: Arachis hypogaea, Arachis species, genomics, genetic maps, molecular markers, molecular breeding, Peanut Genome Consortium (PGC).The world's population is predicted to reach nine billion by 2050 (Nature Editorial, 2010), which means greater demand for food, hence, a continuing need to produce improved cultivars of crop plants. Advances in food production will require greater efforts in agricultural research to increase crop yield with improved genetics for plant protection from biotic and abiotic stresses. Agricultural biotechnology is one tool that holds great promise for sustainability of agricultural production and feeding an ever increasing population.Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.), or groundnut, is one of the major economically important legumes that is cultivated worldwide for its ability to grow in semi-arid environments with relatively low inputs of chemical fertilizers. On a global basis, peanut also is a major source of protein and vegetable oil for human nutrition, containing about 28% protein, 50% oil and 18% carbohydrates. Peanut is cultivated in more than 100 countries in Asia, Africa and the Americas, grown mostly by resource-limited farmers of the semi-arid regions. India and China together produce almost twothirds of the world's peanuts, and the U...