Crops

Major research areas on IITA mandate crops include:

• Ongoing/planned molecular breeding activities at IITA 

  Short, medium and long term priorities were set in consideration of the following factors:

  • the genetics of the trait (simple or complex, mono or polygenic)
  • time/cost of phenotyping
  • availability of genomic resources (are there existing markers or there is a need to develop new ones)
  • current genotyping capacity (throughput) – East or West hub
  • availability of appropriate source materials (germplasm/parents with contrasting traits)
• Priority crops and target traits for MAB 

Short to medium term plan: cowpea and soybean

Cowpea

1. Resistance to striga
   • It was considered a comparative advantage for IITA to invest more in cowpea marker development as there are not many research activities by other institutions for this crop.
   • For striga, mapping population is available. Presently phenotyping is being done outside IITA. This needs to be clarified.
   • Markers are available that are race specific for some races. Therefore, the short-medium term plan will include development of markers for the remaining races of striga. Eventually, these markers will be used to pyramid the race-specific R genes
   • It is anticipated that the ongoing TL1 project will produce some genomic resources not only for striga MAS but also for drought tolerance and resistance to thrips. Even though there is an ongoing research to develop MAS for drought tolerance, this can be targeted as long-term plan.
2. Bacterial blight
   • The mapping population for bacterial blight (both parents were germplasm) is already phenotyped and DNA taken to Wageningen for genotyping. The mapping population developed by Christian Fatokun is the same population used for drought resistance QTL work in Warganingen Univ. Also the population is included in the TL1 genotyping work and developed SNP will be available for this population.
   • Collection, validation and development of geo-reference map of Striga gesnerioides and Alectra vogelii.
   • Identification of SNP markers associated with resistance and validation in mapping population. Note: SNPs developed under TL1 (200 materials for association analysis for drought resistance is available in Kano.
   • Conversion of identified SNP markers linked with Striga and Alectra race specific resistance to SSR/SCAR markers which are available in PCR based MAS/MAB.
   • The development of race-specific molecular marker to determine the predominant striga race in each region (better done by the diagnostic research group).

For further information on cowpea click here

Soybean

1. Markers for promiscuity
   • Link with same private company as for maize (under DTMA project)
   • An F7 mapping population involving a promiscuous parental line (released from Nigeria) and another US line is available. This population has a lot of other promising traits and could be utilized for this work.
2. Asian soybean rust
   • Knowledge available on two genes for Asian soybean rust and IITA is working on two additional sources for which mapping populations are already available (link with university of Illinois)
   • In general there exits sufficient genomic resources in public domain which can be tapped

For further information on soybean click here

Medium to long-term plan: cassava and maize

Cassava

There are arrays of traits of economic importance to be targeted with MAB.

The top priority in W. Africa:

• High vit-A (90% ß-carotene):- Develop marker for pro-vitamin A through comparative genetics. Can tap information from HarvestPlus research on other crops for variability on pro-vitamin trait
• starch quality or quantity
• Drought tolerance
• CMD

• CBSD
• Drought tolerance

- In general, the candidate gene approach for starch and pro-vitamin marker should be explored

For further information on cassava click here

Maize

While drought tolerance work is underway in the DTMA project, resistance to striga is considered a comparative advantage to IITA as no one is working on this.

The ongoing work on using molecular tools for improvement of pro-vitamin A should be strengthened. Work on maize pro-vitamin A has been initiated under the HarvestPlus project.

For further information on maize click here

Long-term plan: Yam and Banana

Yam

Yam is, genomic-wise, the least studied in IITA as well as globally. The ongoing US-linkage funded EST development project has resulted in the development of about 100 EST-SSR markers and is expected to yield more resources.

Explore the candidate gene approach for nutritional quality traits, flowering, dormancy etc.

For further information on yam Linkage mapping click here

For further information on yam Genomics click here

Banana

Traits to be targeted include:

• Resistance to Fusarium
• Drought tolerance
• BSV non-expression
• Fruit quality
• Agronomic
• Nematode resistance
• Weevil resistance
• Dwarfism
• Parthenocarpy
• Earliness
• Apical dominance

For further information on Banana click here - coming soon