Pluses play a signigicant role in Indian agriculture because they provide protein rich diet to poor people of the country. They contain 20-29% protein i.e. about 2.5 times more than cereals. Inspite of release of large number of high yielding varieties, extension of irrigated areas and use of agrochemical, growth recorded in total production of pulses from 11.82 million tonnes in 1970-71 to 13.19 million tonnes in 1995-96 is considered to be non revolutionary. This resulted in decline in per capita availability of pulses to 37g/person/ day. There are several reasons for stagnation in pulses production such as narrow genetic base, lack of genetic variability in useable genepool, inability to transfer increased input to increase output (seed yield) susceptibility to large number of biotic and biotic stresses, photoperiod sensitive and non synchronous flowering and maturity. It has been estimated that on account of insect pest complex infesting pulse crops alone, nearly 2.0 to 2.5 million tonnes of pulses is lost annually. The monitory value of this loss will be approximately Rs.3000 to 3750 crores.

Conventional methods of crop improvement have not improve productivity of pulses with significant pace due to serveral reasons. These methods are slow, expensive and time consuming. Besides lack of reliable resistant sources, undersirable linkages and long gestation period are considered to be the main limitation of these methods. Hence, there is dire need to introduce innovative biotechnological approaches to enhance pulse productivity to meet out the market demand.

Biotechnology and genetic engineering has emerged as potential tool in recent year for genetic manipulation of crop plants. The said technology promises to improve crop productivity through complimenting traditional breeding by decreasing dependence on harmful chemicals pesticides. Fertilizers and antibiotics etc. The tools of biotechnology are now available to plant breeders and can be used effectively to supplement conventional practices in improvement of pulse crops. It is expected that products of biotechnology will be ecologically sage, economically feasible and technologically expectable to Indian farmers.

The major constraints which require biotechnological invention for improvement of pulse crops are presented in table 1.

Table 1 : Major contraints of pulse crops

Crop Constraint Remarks

Chickpea Aschochyta blight The reliable donor

Pod borer salinity parent s are not

Protein content available

Pigeonpea Phytophthora blight

Pod borer pod fly - do -

Protein content

Mung bean & Yellow mosaic virus (YMV) - do -

Urd bean Crecospora leaf spot

Pea Powdery mildew - do -

Lathyrus BOA content - do -

Lentil Rust - do -

The majot tools and techniques of biotechnology which can be used to meet out the various objectives in pulse improvement program are given in table 2.

Table 2 : Biotechnological tools for pulse improvement programme.

Objective Tools

1. Alien gene transfer through * Embyo culture

* Ovule culture

* Ovary culture

* Endosperm culture

* In vitro fertilizatioh

2. Induction and selection of new genetic * Induction of somaclones

variation * In vitro mutagenesis &

cell selection

3. Development of new and noble genotypes * Genetic transformation

& transgenic development

4. Increasing selection efficiency and * DNA marker and marker

pecision assisted selection

* In vitro cell selection

5. Shortening breeding cycle and early * Anterh/pollen culture

fixation of characters * Marker - assisted selection

6. Quantification of genetic diversity * DNA fingerprinting

genetic distance and selection of parents

7. Long term conservation of * In vitro conservation

germplasm * Crypreservation

* DNA bank

8. Efficient transportation and distribution * Synthetic seeds

of material.

Effort have been successful to develop several intergeneric and interspecific hybrids using embryo/ovule/ovary/endosperm culture in grain legumes, Several useful genes imparting resistance to various biotic and biotic stresses have been successfully introgressed on wild relatives of lathyrus, lentil, chickpea, pigeonpea urd bean and mung bean. The resistance to Aschochyta blight to chickpea has been successfully transformed from wild species Cicer judaicum to elite chickpea genotype PDG 84-10 at IIPR, Kanpur.

The techniques of in vitro mutagenesis in vitro selection and somaclonal variation are being also successfully employed to various pulse crops to develop promising genotypes resistant to various biotic and a biotic stresses. This technique has resulted success in developingAschochyta blight resistance in chickpea. Further early results in in vitro selection for salinity tolerance in chickpea is also very encouraging at IIPR, Kanpur. Similary, the technology of cell suspension culture followed by selection of mutants has also been used successfully in major pulse crops at different centres in the country.

Indentification and characterization of pathogens adn pests is problemetic and always pose challenge to plant pathologist and breeders in varietal development of pulse crops. The techniques of molecular diagnosis and DNA finger printing has facelitated resulted easy diagnosis and the precise characterization of pathogenb isolates and insect biotypes at molecular level. This has increased the efficiency of breeding programmes. Important pathogent like Aschochyta rabi and Fusarium oxisporum of chickpea have already been characterized using DNA fingerprinting techniques.

In a new world order and changed senario the characterization of germplasm and plant material is very essential to protect out natural wealth. The techniques of DNA fingreprinting have been proved very handy in protecting the intellectual property rights. These techniques are now being successfully used in pulse crops to characterize and catalogue the accessions of gene bank to protect the genetic wealth.

DNA marker techniques are the new innovations and have tremendous potential in increasing the efficiency of conventional breeding programmes. DNA marker technique can be used for tagging important genes which can subsequently be used for early, easy and precise selection in segregating of promising plants populations. DNA markers have been found linked to wilt resistance in chickpea, powdery mildew resistance in peas and nemarode resistance in mung bean and urd bean.

Transgenic technology which involves insertion of foreign DNA sequence has tremendous potential for improvement of crop plants. Efforts are on to develop transgenic plants resistance to

pod borer in chickpea and pigeroxpea using Bt. Crystal protein gene from a soil bacterium. Early results obtained at various centres ini the country are very encouraging. Similary, efforts are also being made to develop transgenic urdbean and mung bean using coat protien gene.

Current status and future strategies for genetic manipulation of pulse crops using biotechnological tools will be discussed in detail.