Second Draft of Pigeonpea Genome

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan), also known as red gram, gandule bean, tropical green pea,  congo pea, etc. is a member of the family Fabaceae. It is a shrub with self-compatible cleistogamous flowers, but is often cross-pollinated by bees with 10-15% out crossing. Today, pigeonpea is widely cultivated in all tropical and semitropical regions of the world. It is an important food legume crop of rainfed agriculture in the semiarid tropics. More than eighty-five percent of the world pigeonpea is produced and consumed in India where it is a key crop for food and nutritional security of the people. Pigeonpea genome packed in 11 chromosomes (2n=22) is 858 Mbp. It is a rich source of proteins, minerals and vitamins and plays an important role in nutritional and food security of India. Understanding the biological basis of agriculturally important traits at the molecular level and use of modern tools should help pigeonpea researchers modify target traits to a desired level. The first draft of the pigeonpea genome was published only on 454 sequenced data but for the second draft we have generated additional SOLID, Illumina, and Sanger sequencing data this data was assemble using denovo hybrid assembly approach