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Agricultural and food biotechnology

Genome edited crops, crop and animal genomes, breeding technologies, fish farming systems and food grown from cells. Prelims has asked how genome sequencing can be used in Indian agriculture and about biofilters in recirculating aquaculture.

Foundation note: GM crops in India: what is approved, who approves

Showing 1 of 5 articles, those that changed from 1 to 31 August 2026.Show all

Pigeonpea telomere-to-telomere genome

Prelims

The pigeonpea telomere-to-telomere genome is a gapless reading, from one chromosome end to the other, of the genome of pigeonpea, the pulse sold as arhar or tur.

A draft genome stops at the repetitive stretches that sequencing cannot assemble, which is where the centromeres and the telomeres sit.
A genome read from one chromosome end to the other is what lets a trait be placed on a chromosome, and a breeder then go after it.
The same institute produced the world's first draft genome of a pulse crop, also pigeonpea, in 2011.

What changed

4 Aug 2026BriefThe Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) released India's first telomere-to-telomere (T2T) genome, of the pigeonpea variety 'Asha'. The gapless sequence is now the global reference genome for the crop. PIB, 4 Aug 2026: India's first telomere-to-telomere genome: pigeonpea (opens in a new tab)

UPSC has asked

Prelims 2017: how genome sequencing can be used in Indian agriculture

Also filed elsewhere

Radiation in agriculture: mutation breeding and food irradiation · on Fusion, radiation applications and nuclear governance
Mutation breeding exposes seeds to radiation to create changes within the crop's own genome, and the breeder then selects the plants worth keeping.