In vitro tissue culture in breeding programs of leguminous pulses: use and current status

Legumes represent a vast family of plants including more than 600 genera and more than 13,000 species. Among them, the term "pulses" refers only to dried seed crops, excluding those grown mostly for oil extraction (like soybean), where dried peas, edible beans, lentils, chickpeas, cowpea, mungbean, blackgram and pigeonpea are the most common cultivated ones for human consumption due to their high nutritional value. They also have the ability of fixing nitrogen into the soil with symbiotic bacteria, which reduces the need for chemical fertilizers in crop rotations. Conventional breeding methods for pulses are laborious and time-consuming before the release of new genotypes. Thus, alternative biotechnological approaches may be advantageous in this area. Tissue culture, plant regeneration strategies, gene transfer and plant transformation are studied in these pulses. Also, anther, microspore, embryo and ovary culture and their opportunity of application in these pulses are discussed.