Towards Exploitation of Adaptive Traits for Climate-Resilient Smart Pulses

Abstract

Pulses are the main source of protein and minerals in the vegetarian diet. These are primarily cultivated on marginal lands with few inputs in several resource-poor countries of the world, including several in South Asia. Their cultivation in resource-scarce conditions exposes them to various abiotic and biotic stresses, leading to significant yield losses. Furthermore, climate change due to global warming has increased their vulnerability to emerging new insect pests and abiotic stresses that can become even more serious in the coming years. The changing climate scenario has made it more challenging to breed and develop climate-resilient smart pulses. Although pulses are climate smart, as they simultaneously adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change, their narrow genetic diversity has always been a major constraint to their improvement for adaptability. However, existing genetic diversity still provides opportunities to exploit novel attributes for developing climate-resilient cultivars. The mining and exploitation of adaptive traits imparting tolerance/resistance to climate-smart pulses can be accelerated further by using cutting-edge approaches of biotechnology such as transgenics, genome editing, and epigenetics. This review discusses various classical and molecular approaches and strategies to exploit adaptive traits for breeding climate-smart pulses.

Breeding, genetics, and genomics for tolerance against terminal heat in lentil: Current status and future directions

“…The role of these genes for heat tolerance can be studied using CRISPR/Cas9 based targeted gene editing. The mutant population generated after editing of a target gene can be screened for heat tolerance and identified mutants can used in breeding programs for strengthening food security in the future (Kumar, Choudhary, Gupta, & Kumar, 2019). The epigenetic breeding is one of the ways to tackle the problem of heat stress in crop plants (Kumar et al, 2019).…”

“…The mutant population generated after editing of a target gene can be screened for heat tolerance and identified mutants can used in breeding programs for strengthening food security in the future (Kumar, Choudhary, Gupta, & Kumar, 2019). The epigenetic breeding is one of the ways to tackle the problem of heat stress in crop plants (Kumar et al, 2019). Several studies have demonstrated that DNA methylation causing epigenetic variation in crop plants has its role in tolerance to heat stress.…”

“…These DNA methylations have occurred in the genes involved in the starch, auxin, and sugar metabolic pathways that are crucial for proper pollen development (Min et al, 2014). Therefore, in future, it needed to handle the heat‐methylome variation in breeding programs for developing the heat tolerant cultivars in lentil (Harkess, 2018; Kumar et al, 2019). The breeding strategies of using the epigenetic variation towards the development climate smart pulses have been elaborated in a recent review (Kumar et al, 2019).…”

Assessment of Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.) transgenics expressing Bt ICPs, Cry2Aa and Cry1AcF under nethouse containment implicated an effective control against herbivory by Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner)

“…Biotechnological tools like breeding and transgenics have offered strategies for the development of insect‐resistant crops. Moreover, non‐availability of resistant sources and cross incompatibility are major lacunae in breeding for insect resistance in pigeonpea . Hence, scientists worldwide have turned their attention to generate transgenic pigeonpea with better efficacy towards insect herbivory .…”

“…Moreover, non-availability of resistant sources and cross incompatibility are major lacunae in breeding for insect resistance in pigeonpea. 6,7 Hence, scientists worldwide have turned their attention to generate transgenic pigeonpea with better efficacy towards insect herbivory. [8][9][10][11] Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) insecticidal proteins (ICPs) that encode a delta endotoxin have proved to be the most suitable and safe alternative to chemical pesticides.…”