Grain Micronutrients in Pigeonpea: Genetic Improvement Using Modern Breeding Approaches

The green revolution increased crop productivity and significantly reduced starvation and protein malnutrition. However, this caused micronutrient depleted soil, thereby responsible for widespread deficiencies of plant nutrients. Legumes are the important constituents of traditional healthy diets worldwide and second in agricultural importance after cereals. On a worldwide scale, pigeonpea ranks sixth among all legume crops and is India’s second most important legume. Biofortification is the process of enhancing the nutrient value of crops using conventional selective breeding and agronomic approaches or via genetically modifying them. In many Indian states, the seeds of pigeonpea serve as a protein-rich pulse and are consumed in many forms including grain, vegetable and fodder. A variety of nutrients are present in the seeds, including carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins, minerals, and also some secondary metabolites. Pigeonpea exhibited various ethnomedicinal and pharmacological properties, and it has a long history of ethnobotanical use. Conventional breeding programs are utilized to develop nutritionally improved cultivars, although the success of such a program is very slow due to restricted gene pool and linkage drag. The exploitation of breeding-based approaches along with supportive interdisciplinary research and development have been utilized for biofortified pigeonpea development. Some transgenic approaches were also undertaken for nutritional improvement and antibody production. Further improvement in those approaches and genomic technologies will enhance the nutritional quality of pigeonpea.