Advancing Climate Resilience in the Grain Legume Cowpea with MARS, MAGIC and Root Traits

Efforts to advance resilience of cowpea (Vigna unguiculataL. Walp.) to water stress during drought events under rainfed production systems in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions is of vital importance to boost yield of this protein-rich grain legume. Our focus has been to develop genomic and genetic resources to advance knowledge of and breeding for drought tolerance traits. Primary developments include breeding populations using elite parents with drought tolerance through Marker-Assisted Recurrent Selection (MARS), Multi-parent Advanced Generation Inter‐Cross (MAGIC) lines from eight founder parents that vary in drought tolerance phenotypes, and analyses of root architecture traits of field-grown plants that correlate with growth and yield under water-restricted field conditions. Use of a high-density SNP fixed array and flexible SNP-KASP platform allow for a range of genotyping applications for trait investigation and breeding selection. Progress in utilizing these resources to develop high-yielding drought tolerant cowpea genotypes will be presented and discussed.