Tropical Legumes I:

Improving Tropical Legume Productivity for

Marginal Environments

in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

• Characterise diversity and develop germplasm for genetic studies

• Generate genomic resources for genetic studies and breeding

• Identify molecular markers and genes for biotic stress resistance

• Identify molecular markers and genes for drought tolerance

• Enhance locally adapted germplasm with target traits

• Orthologous genetic markers for cross-genome analysis

• Comparative analysis of the Arachis-species complex.

• Estimating genome divergence at orthologous loci

TLI Phase I: Objective and Activities

Focus: 4 crops – beans, chickpeas, cowpeas & groundnuts,

and for each….

Objectives of TLI Phase II

Validation of molecular markers and testing of molecular

breeding approaches in drought-prone environments for traits

important to sub-Saharan African farmers

Precision phenotyping to guarantee accurate marker–trait

associations, and to refine selection indices used by breeders

Data integration of all data-producing research activities in TLI,

Phases I and II, to ensure availability of high-quality, curated

and publicly available data

Enhancing breeding capacity for programme partners in Africa

Combined endeavor with building capacity for drought tolerance

breeding through the detailed study of cross-legume

phenotyping and on data management by cataloguing all

data generated in the project

TLI–PHASE II: IMPORTANT

OUTPUTS

TLI–Phase II: important outputs

Genomic resources

Genetic stocks: reference sets, synthetics, MARS, MAGIC,

MABC, AB-QTL & CSSL populations

Markers for traits and QTLs

Improved germplasm

Methodologies and screening protocols

Trained scientists

DB and DM strategy in place

Improved infrastructure

Genomic resources

All 4 crops:

Development of SNP and SSR markers

Diverse genetic maps from bi-parental and consensus

maps

Mapped QTLs for biotic and abiotic traits and candidate

genes associated

Physical maps

Sequencing of their genome

Genetic stocks: Trait pyramiding

MARS (Marker assisted recurrent selection)

Bean:

1 population of ~200 lines

Phenotyping in 2 countries (Colombia and Ethiopia)

Cowpea:

4 ongoing populations (~300 lines)

IITA, Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Senegal

Chickpea:

2 populations

Phenotyping in 3 countries (Ethiopia, India and Kenya)

Genetic stocks: Trait pyramiding

MAGIC (Multiparent advanced generation intercross)

Beans (8 parents)

Seed type, abiotic stress, drought adaptation, yield potential,

earliness, biotic stress

648 lines tested for drought tolerance

Cowpeas (8 parents)

Yield potential under marginal conditions, abiotic and biotic

stresses

300 lines

Chickpeas (8 parents)

Drought-tolerant and widely adapted germplasm, FPVs in

diverse regions, high-yielding

1,200 lines

Genetic stocks

Synthetics for Groundnut

6 synthetics developed

Resistance to rust, LLS, ELS, seed size, yield potential

2 populations developed

Brazilian cultivar

Senegalese cultivar

Under evaluation

2 new populations under development

Senegalese cultivar

Genetic stocks

CSSL (Chromosome segment substitution lines)

Synthetic line x elite

78 lines available and under multi-location phenotyping

Several traits: drought, biotic stresses, yield components

AB-QTL populations

2 populations

RIL populations

At least 5 populations

Development of improved version

of local cultivars

MABC (Marker assisted backcrossing)

Beans

5 populations undertaken, but adaptation low so abandoned

Cowpeas

11 populations (BF, IITA, Mozambique, Senegal, UCR)

Drought, biotic stress (flower thrips, Striga, nematodes and

Macrophomina phaseolina )

Chickpeas

11 populations (ICRISAT, India, Ethiopia, Kenya)

Introgression of the region controlling root QTL and drought

Groundnuts

13 populations

Resistance to rosette, ELS and rust

Development of improved cultivars

MAS (Marker assisted selection) - Bean

Disease resistance

Virus

Postharvest deterioration (storage insects)

Bacteria

Fungus

Insects

CAPACITY BUILDING AND

PARTNERSHIP

Development of new populations

through partnership

For the development of CSSL and AB-QTL: EMBRAPA (Brazil)

sent synthetic lines to ISRA/CERAAS, Senegal

ICRISAT sent synthetic lines to ISRA/CERAAS for development

of new CSSL populations

Empowerment of NARS for development of MARS and MABC

populations under the leadership of CIAT, ICRISAT (residential

and long-duration training) and UCR (mentoring)

Fully or partially TL1-supported PhD and

Masters Students

Crop Degree

programme Number Country

Beans MSc 2 Ethiopia, Malawi

Beans PhD 5 Ethiopia, Mozambique,

South Africa, Zimbabwe

Chickpeas MSc 5 Ethiopia, Kenya

Chickpeas PhD 7 Australia,Ethiopia, Kenya

Cowpeas PhD 10

Burkina Faso, Cameroon,

Ghana, Mozambique,

Niger, Nigeria, Senegal,

USA

Groundnuts MSc 2 Mali, Tanzania

Groundnuts PhD 4 Malawi, Niger, Senegal

Total MSc 9 5

Total PhD 26 12

Challenges

Organising and using phenotypic data generated on

hundreds of accessions at multiple locations for several biotic

constraints and for grain yield

Logistics to perform good MARS (reliable phenotypic data,

large GxE effect, limited secondary traits, limited seed

production, fast genotyping turnover)

Data analysis capacity for all teams

Data management implemented by all teams

Use of IBP tools by all teams

Limited human-resource capacity in NARS in modern

breeding

Staff turnover

Conclusion and perspectives

Evolving role of partners over time with NARS now leading

several key activities with ARI and CG scientists mentors

Successful and effective examples of technology change,

bridging the upstream–downstream research gap:

Cowpea MARS (North South)

Groundnut introgression line (South South)

Chickpea MABC (South South)

Successful proof of concept that MB can have impact on legume

productivity

Impressive set of outputs generated

Integration of TLI and TLII is being done, but needs to be

reinforced in the last year of the project

Thank you!