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

The Center of Excellence in Genomics (CEG) of ICRISAT (ceg. icrisat.org) will complete its first 10 years in December 2017. The genesis of CEG goes back to a grant entitled ‘Centre of Excellence for High-throughput Allele Determination for Molecular Breeding’ under the Center of Excellence (CoE) scheme of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India given to ICRISAT mainly to provide genotyping services for SSR and DArT markers and training to NARS researchers in 2007. The Center of Excellence (CoE) was subsequently institutionalised by ICRISAT as a research, service and training centre, with three major modules : (i) Applied Genomics & Molecular Breeding, (ii) Sequencing and Genotyping Services, and (ii) Capacity Building. CEG serves as a cost-effective genomics platforms for scientists and research staff from different Themes/Research Programmes of ICRISAT as well as NARS partners. The CEG has 184 collaborators from 35 countries in six continents. In 2007, the availability of genomic resources was very limited in ICRISAT mandate crops. Therefore, CEG scientists, in collaboration with researchers from ICRISAT and national/international organisations, initiated efforts to develop large-scale molecular markers, transcript sequence data, genetic, transcript and physical maps, cost-effective and high-throughput marker genotyping platforms, as well as decoding genome sequences of ICRISAT mandate crops. While analysing the sequence, a number of computational genomics tools and databases were developed. Furthermore, in collaboration with scientists/staff from ICRISAT and partners from Asia and Africa, the genomics research was translated successfully into developing superior lines in several ICRISAT mandate crops. In terms of service, CEG was offering initially SSR and DArT genotyping services and then subsequently SNP and sequencing services at cost-to-cost basis. To empower the research and breeding community, CEG organised several training courses, many national and international workshops/symposia/conferences, and hosted several research scholars/post-docs/visiting scientists. The CEG has been visited by a number of high-profile personalities from science, politics, and donor and government organisations. CEG scientists, together with colleagues from ICRISAT and outside, have been successful in mobilising more than US$96 million and published 353 scientific articles, including nine in Nature journals, with 12,000 citations. This article highlights some key achievements from the CEG as a collaborative team effort.