Genomics-Aided Breeding Strategies for Biotic Stress in Cluster Bean

Cluster bean or Guar [Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub.] is drought-tolerant annual legume crop being cultivated on resources constraint situations of arid zone. India holds the leading position in global guar production, contributing approximately 90% of the world’s total guar production. It serves the purpose of feed, fodder, food and soil enhancer in the regions having limited choice of crops to grow and industrially important seed-borne gum having various applications. The productivity of this high-valued industrial crop is poor due to unsatisfactory availability of early maturing and high-yielding varieties and incidence of numerous biotic and abiotic stresses. Besides hostile growing conditions, various fungal and bacterial diseases pose a significant threat to guar production. Despite its huge industrial importance, only limited breeding work has been done for its genetic improvement for biotic stress resistance to enhance the productivity levels. Genetic improvement for enhanced stress resistance could not achieve due to inadequate germplasm availability and lack of systematic studies against diseases. There is need to give due emphasis on development of early maturing climate-resilient varieties with inbuilt plasticity and resistance potential towards diseases fulfilling quality requirement of the industry. Tolerant varieties with inbuilt resistance are the most economical and viable alternative to prevent the crop from heavy losses. It,therefore, warrants the intervention of biotechnological tools along with conventional approaches to address the biotic stresses both in traditional and new potential areas. In this chapter, we briefed about the efforts so far dedicated towards the genetic enhancement of cluster bean by the deployment of conventional and genomics-aided breeding strategies and future prospects.