Organisation and Genetic Mapping of the Chickpea Genome

The improvement of important food legumes such as chickpea by modern biotechnology has been lagging behind achievements in e.g. model plants or cereals. However, substantial advancements have been made in many of these crops in recent years. Using chickpea as an e.g. this article summarises the progress made in our understanding of genome structure and evolution, genetic mapping, mapping of resistance genes for important pathogens, synteny between related species and genera, and plant transformation and regeneration. It is expected, that transfer of knowledge from model plants and advanced crops together with high-throughput technologies will catalyze the analysis of entire transcriptomes and proteomes which will foster the development also in the neglected crops and substantially add to their agricultural value.