Potential of Legume Genomics-Assisted Breeding in Asia

Suk-Ha Lee, Department of Plant Science and Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-921, Korea, and Plant Genomics and Breeding Institute, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-921, Korea

Sue K Kim, Department of Plant Science and Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-921, Korea

Rajeev K Varshney, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India

Great attention has been paid to legume species in Asia as they provide essential nutritional benefits to the diet such a low-fat, high-protein source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidant. Not only do legumes play an important role in eating, but as well as they provide a natural source of fertilizer by fixing atmospheric nitrogen to available nitrogen. Considering their importance, extensive efforts have been made in studies of legume genomes to expand genetic and genomic resources with the ultimate aim of improving the quantity and quality of legumes. In recent years, four of the Asian legumes have been sequenced completely including cowpea, chickpea, mungbean, and adzuki bean, enabling the discovery of gene families of legume-specific and provides a useful framework for genome-wide association mapping that can assist in finding target phenotypes within legumes species. Moreover, genomics-assisted breeding can be performed for accelerating legume improvement that will potential help eating quality in Asia.