NUI Galway scientists help unravel genetic code of food crop DNA

By Katie Finnegan

Published in SIN Newspaper

Researchers at NUI Galway are part of a global scientific team, which has succeeded in decoding the genome of a crop, known as the Pigeonpea, the staple food for millions people worldwide. 

The mapping of the pigeonpea genome is a breakthrough in agricultural development and will have a major impact on improved crop productivity, tackling pests and disease constraints in production, and improved resistance to harsh environments and the future variable climate. It is now set to join the world's league of major food crops with the completion of its genome sequence.

Farmer growing pigeonpea plant

International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), an Indian-based agricultural research institute, led a global partnership and spent a few years analyzing the genome. NUI Galway Botany and Plant scientist, Mark T.A. Donoghue, Reetu Tuteja and Charles Spillane helped in decoding this plant's genetic code and have their work has been published in the highest-ranked journal in the area, “Nature Biotechnology”.

“Pigeonpea is a staple food crop of millions of poorer smallholder farmers in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa,” said Prof Charles Spillane, the head of botany and plant science at NUIG.

The so-called ‘orphan crop’ is the first non-industrial crop to have a completed genome sequence. "While crops such as pigeonpea are essential to food and livelihood security in developing countries, such crops of the world’s poorest peoples are considered orphan crops as there is limited scientific research applied to the development of improved higher productivity varieties due to a lack of commercial incentives.” said Prof Spillane.

“The mapping of the pigeonpea genome is a breakthrough that could not have come at a better time. Now that the world is faced with hunger and famine, particularly in the Horn of Africa brought about by the worst drought of the decades, science-based, sustainable agricultural development solutions are vital in extricating vulnerable dryland communities out of poverty and hunger for good”; said Icrisat director general William Dar, who visited NUIG earlier this year.

Pigeonpea - Google Images

“Modern crop improvement technologies for smallholder farmer crops such as pigeonpea will be crucial to speed up the development of improved varieties that can provide high yields and improved livelihoods,” he said. 

The pigeonpea is known as the 'poor people's meat' because of its high protein content and provides a well balanced diet when paired with cereals. It is mainly used by resource-poor farmers in many semi-arid tropical regions of the world, such as Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and South-Central America.

Some of the research partners included BGI – Shenzhen (China), the National University of Ireland Galway, University of Georgia, University of California-Davis, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and National Centre for Genome Resources, and was also supported by the CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme based in Mexico.