A memorable journey of 10 years: Fostering genomics research towards scientific excellence and partnership

摘要

The Center of Excellence in Genomics (CEG) of ICRISAT (ceg.udicrisat.org) will complete its first 10 years in December 2017. Theudgenesis of CEG goes back to a grant entitled ‘Centre of Excellenceudfor High-throughput Allele Determination for MolecularudBreeding’ under the Center of Excellence (CoE) scheme of theudDepartment of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India givenudto ICRISAT mainly to provide genotyping services for SSR andudDArT markers and training to NARS researchers in 2007. TheudCenter of Excellence (CoE) was subsequently institutionalisedudby ICRISAT as a research, service and training centre, with threeudmajor modules : (i) Applied Genomics & Molecular Breeding, (ii)udSequencing and Genotyping Services, and (ii) Capacity Building.udCEG serves as a cost-effective genomics platforms for scientistsudand research staff from different Themes/Research Programmesudof ICRISAT as well as NARS partners. The CEG has 184 collaboratorsudfrom 35 countries in six continents.udIn 2007, the availability of genomic resources was very limitedudin ICRISAT mandate crops. Therefore, CEG scientists, inudcollaboration with researchers from ICRISAT and national/internationaludorganisations, initiated efforts to develop large-scaleudmolecular markers, transcript sequence data, genetic, transcriptudand physical maps, cost-effective and high-throughput markerudgenotyping platforms, as well as decoding genome sequencesudof ICRISAT mandate crops. While analysing the sequence, audnumber of computational genomics tools and databases wereuddeveloped. Furthermore, in collaboration with scientists/staffudfrom ICRISAT and partners from Asia and Africa, the genomicsudresearch was translated successfully into developing superiorudlines in several ICRISAT mandate crops. In terms of service,udCEG was offering initially SSR and DArT genotyping services andudthen subsequently SNP and sequencing services at cost-to-costudbasis. To empower the research and breeding community, CEGudorganised several training courses, many national and internationaludworkshops/symposia/conferences, and hosted several researchudscholars/post-docs/visiting scientists. The CEG has beenudvisited by a number of high-profile personalities from science,udpolitics, and donor and government organisations. CEG scientists,udtogether with colleagues from ICRISAT and outside, haveudbeen successful in mobilising more than US$96 million and publishedud353 scientific articles, including nine in Nature journals,udwith 12,000 citations. This article highlights some key achievementsudfrom the CEG as a collaborative team effort.