The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has achieved a significant scientific breakthrough by developing India's first fully annotated telomere-to-telomere (T2T) reference genome for pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.) variety 'Asha', popularly known as 'Arhar' or 'Tur'. This genome has been approved as the global reference genome for pigeonpea, marking India's first complete T2T reference genome achievement.
The newly developed T2T genome sequence contains 752.65 million base pairs of DNA assembled into 92 contigs, providing a complete representation of all 11 chromosomes of pigeonpea. The genome assembly, designated NIPBCcT2T4, has been deposited in the global database (NCBI) under accession number GCF_000230855.1 and was released on 20 April 2026. The assembly comprises all 11 chromosomes including all 11 centromeres and 22 telomeres, demonstrating chromosome-level completeness. Comprehensive genome annotation identified 36,557 genes producing 48,008 mRNAs (coding sequences), with transcriptome mapping recording more than 99.9% read alignment, confirming high accuracy and completeness.
This breakthrough builds on ICAR-National Institute for Plant Biotechnology's pioneering work that produced the world's first draft genome of a pulse crop in 2011 (pigeonpea variety 'Asha'), which was also the first crop genome sequenced entirely in India. An improved version was published in 2017, with this latest achievement representing the complete T2T genome sequence.
The development is expected to accelerate breeding of climate-resilient, high-yielding and nutritionally enriched pigeonpea varieties, strengthening India's pulse improvement programme. It will serve as a valuable national genomic resource for advanced gene and pangenome analyses, discovery of genes associated with important agronomic and nutritional traits, and application of molecular breeding and genome-editing technologies.
This achievement supports the Government of India's Mission for 'Aatmanirbharta in Pulses' (2025-26 to 2030-31) which aims to achieve self-sufficiency in pulse production, reduce import dependence, and enhance farmers' income. The mission targets increasing pulse production to about 35 million tonnes by 2030–31 through improved seeds, area expansion, technology adoption, assured procurement, and strengthened post-harvest infrastructure.