Genetic Polymorphism and Lineage of Pigeon Pea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.] inferred from Chloroplast and Nuclear DNA gene regions

Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp. is an important legume crop that grows in semiarid tropic continents such as Asia, South America and Africa. Sub-Saharan African countries, particularly Nigeria, have to achieve food, crop and nutrition security, because the population faces hunger and malnutrition. Thus, to mitigate these challenges, developing and improving landraces of crop plants is essential. Improving the cultivation and breeding of grain legumes, especially Cajanus cajan (pigeon pea), is an option, given the drought-tolerant nature of the crop. An ecological imbalance has led to a decreasing natural population of C. cajan, thereby creating a potential decrease in genetic diversity. In this study, genetic markers (matK, ITS and PetB) were used to identify a series of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), selection types, haplotypes and traced evolutionary lineage within C. cajan accessions. We noted the detection of these SNPs among the molecular markers reflecting the origin of the crop plant, thus detecting shared haplotype for ITS and unshared haplotypes for matK and PetB. This study provides insight on the genetic diversity of C. cajan and useful in identifying genetic fingerprints that correlate with other properties of C. cajan, and thus, which could assist in preventing loss of diversity.

Automated summary

This study used genetic markers to identify genetic diversity and traced evolutionary lineages within different accessions of C. cajan, which could help prevent loss of genetic diversity.