First peanut genome sequenced

A team of multinational crop geneticists, including those from India, has successfully sequenced the genome of the humble peanut, an advance that will aid breeding of more productive and resilient varieties.

The new peanut genome sequence by The International Peanut Genome Initiative will be available to researchers and plant breeders across the globe.

Peanut, known scientifically as Arachis hypogaea and also called groundnut, is important both commercially and nutritionally.

While the oil— and protein—rich legume is seen as a cash crop in the developed world, it remains a valuable sustenance crop in developing nations.

“The peanut crop is important in the United States, but it’s very important for developing nations as well,” said Scott Jackson, who serves as chair of the International Peanut Genome Initiative, or IPGI.

“In many areas, it is a primary calorie source for families and a cash crop for farmers,” said Jackson.

Globally, farmers tend about 24 million hectares of peanuts each year and produce about 40 million tonnes.

“Improving peanut varieties to be more drought—, insect— and disease—resistant can help farmers in developed nations produce more peanuts with fewer pesticides and other chemicals and help farmers in developing nations feed their families and build more secure livelihoods,” said plant geneticist Rajeev Varshney of the International Crops Research Institute for Semi—Arid Tropics in India, who serves on the IPGI.

The effort to sequence the peanut genome has been under way for several years.

While peanuts were successfully bred for intensive cultivation for thousands of years, relatively little was known about the legume’s genetic structure because of its complexity, according to plant geneticist Peggy Ozias—Akins, who also works with the IPGI.

The peanut in fields today is the result of a natural cross between two wild species, Arachis duranensis and Arachis ipaensis, which occurred in north Argentina between 4,000 and 6,000 years ago.

Because its ancestors were two different species, today’s peanut is a polyploid, meaning the species can carry two separate genomes, designated A and B subgenomes.

To map the peanut’s structure, researchers sequenced the genomes of the two ancestral parents because together they represent the cultivated peanut.

The sequences provide researchers access to 96 per cent of all peanut genes in their genomic context, providing the molecular map needed to more quickly breed drought— and disease—resistant, lower—input and higher—yielding varieties of peanuts.

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