Development and application of genomic resources for comparative and translational genomics in legumes through leveraging genomic sequence of Medicago truncatula

The expressed sequence tags (ESTs) of common bean were BLAST aligned with barred medic genome sequence and developed 1196 conserved intron spanning primers (CISPs) to facilitate genetic studies in legumes. Randomly selected 288 CISPs, representing loci on barrel medic genome, were tested on 10 selected members of legume family. On the source taxa, the highest single copy amplification success rates of 61.8% (barrel medic) and 56.2% (common bean) was obtained. The success rate of markers was 54.5% in cowpea followed by 53.5% in pigeonpea and chickpea, signifying cross taxon amplification and their potential use in comparative genomics. However, relatively low percentages of primer set amplified (40–43%) in soybean, urdbean and peanut. Further, these primers were tested on different varieties of chickpea, pigeonpea and cowpea. The PCR products were sequenced and aligned which resulted in detection of 26 SNPs and eight INDeLs in cowpea, seven SNPs and two INDeLs in chickpea and 27 SNPs and 14 INDeLs in pigeonpea. These SNPs were successfully converted in to size variation for gel-based genotyping. The CISP markers developed in this study are expected to aid in map saturation of legumes and in marker-assisted selection for accelerated crop improvement.