Enabling Tools for Modern Breeding of Cowpea for Biotic Stress Resistance - Translational Genomics for Crop Breeding: Biotic Stress - page 188

Fig. 10.1. Consensus genetic map of cowpea and parameters depicting map characteristics (Lucas et al.
2011). (A) Average distance between bins (0.25 cM). (B) Average number of markers per bin (0.5 units).
(C) Number of bins (25 units). (D) Number of markers (25 units). (E) Bin locations. C and D begin at the
same radial position. For a color version of this figure, please refer to the color plate.

refinements since then have been achieved
through comparison with the common bean
whole-genome assembly and a partially assem-
bled cowpea whole-genome assembly. The cur-
rent SNP-based cowpea consensus genetic link-
age map is included in a publicly available
browser called HarvEST:Cowpea, which can
be downloaded as Windows software from
http://harvest.ucr.edu, or operated through an
online portal at www.harvest-web.org. This map
will continue to be updated periodically as addi-
tional genotyping and other types of information
become available. With this current consensus
map, discovery of useful trait-linked and genetic
background markers in cowpea can be made with

a high probability of success by phenotyping for
any trait segregating in any of the 11 RIL pop-
ulations and overlaying the existing genotypic
data.

Fingerprinting of Cultivars and
Other Prospective Parents

Genotyping a large sample of current varieties
and advanced breeding lines with a platform
of mapped markers is valuable and convenient
for several applications. For breeding, this infor-
mation supplies quick decision making for the
selection of lines for crossing, while a database
of information on parental genotypes, coupled