Peanuts are a nutritional and economic lifeline for over a billion people worldwide, particularly in regions of Africa, Asia, and South America. This global commodity generates billions of dollars annually, supporting diverse livelihoods from multinational corporations to small family farms. Peanuts are an excellent source of plant-based protein, healthy fats, and essential vitamins and minerals, all of which promote healthy development, especially for children and pregnant women.
While peanuts are a nutritional and economic powerhouse, they face growing threats from pests, diseases, and climate change. For a smallholder farmer, losing an entire peanut harvest to disease is catastrophic, often leading to severe financial hardship and food insecurity for their family and community. With increasing threats to the peanut enterprise, the need for innovative solutions has never been greater.
HudsonAlpha Faculty Investigator Josh Clevenger, PhD, and his lab are directly addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing peanut growers. By identifying genetic markers for traits like disease resistance and higher yields, their work is helping to develop new peanut varieties that are better equipped to withstand changing environmental conditions and pests. But they’re not stopping there; they’re revolutionizing the global peanut industry and ensuring breeders across all levels of operation have equal access to the genomic tools essential for success.
The agricultural field is witnessing a genomic renaissance, with growing amounts of genomic information available to help scientists and breeders understand the inner workings of commodity crops. In 2012, the International Peanut Genome Initiative was formed to produce a genome of cultivated peanuts and create genomic tools to accelerate the development of improved peanut cultivars. Dr. Clevenger was involved in several research projects under the Peanut Genome Initiative.
The first draft of the peanut genome was released in 2014, providing a valuable resource for peanut scientists. In 2019, a more comprehensive and accurate sequencing of the cultivated peanut genome was achieved, providing deeper insights into the crop’s genetic makeup. These reference genomes gave scientists the tools they needed to start looking at genetic contributors to important traits like greater yield, disease resistance, improved nutrition, improved processing traits, and better flavor.
To find these genetic contributors, scientists must dig into the genomes of peanuts with and without valuable traits, which requires advanced analysis methods. The Clevenger lab developed a suite of computational tools called Khufu that helps them quickly and accurately find genetic contributors to traits of interest. Using Khufu, the team has helped dozens of breeding programs across the globe implement genomic solutions into their programs.
In a new project funded by USDA-ARS with support from U.S. Senator Katie Britt, Dr. Clevenger and his team are offering genotyping services to peanut scientists and breeders who want to use genomics to solve global peanut problems and create better peanuts. Individuals can apply for genotyping grants through the Peanut Research Foundation, which is leading the selection of genotyping projects.
The samples will come to the Clevenger lab, where they’ll use their cutting-edge genotyping software to find genomic answers to the breeders’ problems, which can range from invasive pests to diseases to drought. Already, the Clevenger lab has identified a region of the peanut genome that confers resistance to a devastating disease called peanut smut, which is prevalent in Argentina and could spread to other countries.
The team is also working with the Groundnut Improvement Network of Africa (GINA) to help breeders across Africa combat specific problems in their region. Many households across Africa grow peanuts to feed their families and earn a living. Not all threats to peanuts are uniform across the continent. Diseases like groundnut rosette virus threaten operations in East Africa, while foliar diseases are more prevalent in West Africa. GINA aims to build a core set of genetic diversity of African peanuts so that breeders across the continent can start integrating genomic tools into their breeding programs and react more quickly to emerging threats.
By empowering breeders from operations of all sizes, the team is helping create a sustainable peanut industry that can survive environmental, disease, and pest threats for decades to come. Clevenger and his lab are leveraging the peanut genome and the tools they created to make an impact on generations of peanut producers, shellers, and manufacturers across the US and on the continents of Africa, South America, and Australia.
As we have seen, genomic tools have immense potential to transform the peanut industry. By continuing to invest in research, fostering collaboration, and supporting the development of new technologies, we can ensure a sustainable future for this vital crop and the millions of people who rely on it.
