Biotechnological Applications in Grain Legume Improvement: A Critical Review

Tissue culture and genetic transformation play a vital role in the improvement of cultivated plants for disease and insect resistance, beneficial traits improvement etc. Numerous studies describe different media and hormone combinations for eliciting in vitro regeneration in pulse crops. Also, the use of various disarmed Agrobacterium strains with different marker gene as well as character genes have been reported. Significant contributions made on in vitro regeneration and genetic transformation during the last ten years with five important legume crops namely Cajanus sp., Phaseolus sp., Pisum sp., Cicer sp., and Vigna sp., are reviewed in this report. It is concluded that reproducible protocols for genetic transformation are not readily available in these crops, since, regeneration is genotype specific. Therefore, further research is essential for both regeneration as well as genetic transformation of locally important cultivars of these genotypes.