Past, present and future of tissue culture and genetic transformation research on cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.)

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculataL.) is one of the most importantdrought-tolerant summer food legume crop largely cultivated ontens of millions of small farms in the drier zones of Africa withlimited yield due to various biotic and abiotic stresses. It is alsogrown in some Asian, South European, Central and South Ameri-can countries both as food and forage crops. Cowpea can play animportant role in supplementing rural population diet due to itslow cost high protein, high calories, minerals and vitamins. Worlddemand for legume feed protein is increasing gradually due toincreasing demand for animal food products. Therefore, there is adire need to develop new varieties combining traditional and mod-ern biotechnological techniques to meet these future challenges.Reports concerning micropropagation and tissue culture studies ofcowpea started during early 1980s with moderate success in 1990sowing to recalcitrant nature of plant. However, during 2000s manyresearchers developed new protocols to overcome the problemof recalcitrance and consequently micropropagation. This reportreviews past and present tissue culture and genetic transformationresearch on cowpea and also focus on future prospects of cowpearesearch using modern biotechnological techniques