Science and Technology › Biotechnology › Gene editing and genomics
Crop and animal genomics
India's crop genomics has its first complete reference. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has read pigeonpea, the pulse sold as arhar or tur, from one chromosome end to the other, and that gapless sequence is now the global reference for the crop. The value of reading a genome without gaps is that a trait can be placed on a chromosome, and a breeder can then go after it.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2026: the GenomeIndia Project
- Prelims 2017: how genome sequencing can be used in Indian agriculture
Why a gapless genome is different
- A draft genome stops at the repetitive stretches that sequencing cannot assemble, which is where the centromeres and the telomeres sit.
- Molecular breeding and genome editing both need the precision a gapless assembly gives, and in pulses they serve the Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses, the national effort to make India self-reliant in pulses.
India's first telomere-to-telomere genome
752.65 millionbase pairs in the genome
11chromosomes, with their centromeres
22telomeres, the chromosome ends
36,557genes annotated
What has happened
4 Aug 2026
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) released India's first telomere-to-telomere genome, of the pigeonpea variety 'Asha', and deposited it at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
- The same institute produced the world's first draft genome of a pulse crop, also pigeonpea, in 2011.
PIB, 4 Aug 2026: India's first telomere-to-telomere genome: pigeonpea (opens in a new tab)