Chromosome-centric approaches in crop genomics: Focus on Mendel’s pea plant

Gregor Mendel laid foundations of genetics after his experiments in pea plant hybridization. The choice of pea (Pisum sativum L.) and its seven morphological characters as a model system was fortuitous and enabled the fundamental discoveries. Nevertheless, other model organisms were chosen by his followers who aimed at discovering the nature of hereditary information. This remained so until the era of molecular biology and genomics, largely due to the huge size of the pea plant genome. However, the introduction of methods for dissecting the genome to single chromosomes by flow cytometric sorting simplified physical mapping and sequencing the pea genome and the analysis of its evolution. An unexplored potential of chromosome flow sorting in pea includes gene cloning and also the analysis of the molecular organization of condensed mitotic chromosomes. In line with the advances in various omics techniques and a variety of physiological and morphological characters, this makes the pea plant an attractive candidate for a new plant model.