An international consortium of researchers has sequenced the genome of the common pea (Pisum sativum), the second most important grain legume in the world after the common bean.
A basket of peas (Pisum sativum) in pods in Vinnytsia district, Ukraine. Image credit: George Chernilevsky.
Pea was domesticated around 10,000 years ago by Neolithic farmers of the Fertile Crescent, along with cereals and other grain legumes.
This plant belongs to the Leguminosae (or Fabaceae) family, which includes cool season grain legumes such as pea, lentil, chickpea, faba bean, and tropical grain legumes such as common bean, cowpea, mungbean.
It is a valuable source of dietary proteins, mineral nutrients, complex starch and fibers with demonstrated health benefits. Its symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria reduces the need for applied fertilizers so mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
“The high-quality, annotated pea genome sequence will facilitate the characterization of its many known mutants, enhance pea improvement and allow more efficient use of the wide genetic diversity present in the genus,” said team leader Dr. Judith Burstin from the Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté and colleagues.
Dr. Burstin’s team sequenced the genome of the pea cultivar ‘Caméor,’ released by the French breeding company Seminor in 1973 and characterized by its protein-rich seeds.
“The pea has a much larger and more complex genome compared to other legumes,” noted team member Professor David Edwards, from the University of Western Australia.
“Its genome assembly spans about 4.45 billion letters. But it’s only with relatively recent technological innovations that we’ve been able to sequence and assemble such large genomes.”
“The research built on pioneering concepts of inheritance developed by Gregor Mendel, a 19th century monk,” added team member Professor Jacqueline Batley, also from the University of Western Australia.
“With the pea genome sequenced, we can now start to understand the basis for the variation which has evolved.”
“Mendel analyzed the inheritance of different pea traits such as wrinkled peas, and he demonstrated that these traits were passed on from one generation to the next, a foundation for Darwin’s later discoveries in evolution.”
“More than 150 years later, we’ve now assembled the pea genome and can start to understand the DNA basis of the inheritance observed by Mendel.”
The results were published in the journal Nature Genetics.
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Jonathan Kreplak et al. 2019. A reference genome for pea provides insight into legume genome evolution. Nature Genetics 51: 1411-1422; doi: 10.1038/s41588-019-0480-1
