Towards marker-assisted selection in pulses: a review

P>Pulses are important sources of proteins in vegetarian diet. However, genetic improvement in production and productivity of pulse crops has been very slow owing to several constraints. The present view of researchers is that the effectiveness and efficiency of conventional breeding can be significantly improved by using molecular markers. Nowadays, molecular markers are routinely utilized worldwide in all major crops as a component of breeding. The pace of development of molecular markers and other genomic sources has been accelerated in chickpea, pigeon pea and some other pulses, and marker-trait associations have been established for a number of important agronomic traits. The efforts are underway to use high-throughput genotyping platforms besides developing more genomic resources in other pulses. So far, progress in the use of marker-assisted selection as a part of pulse breeding programmes has been very slow and limited to few pulse crops such as chickpea and common bean. In this article, we have reviewed the progress made, limitations encountered and future possibilities for the application of marker-assisted selection in the genetic improvement of pulse crops.