Abstract
Pearl millet is one of the most important small-grained C4 Panicoid crops with a large genome size (∼2352 Mb), short life cycle and outbreeding nature. It is highly resilient to areas with scanty rain and high temperature. Pearl millet is a nutritionally superior staple crop for people inhabiting hot, drought-prone arid and semi-arid regions of South Asia and Africa where it is widely grown and used for food, hay, silage, bird feed, building material, and fuel. Having excellent nutrient composition and exceptional buffering capacity against variable climatic conditions and pathogen attack makes pearl millet a wonderful model crop for stress tolerance studies. Pearl millet germplasm show a large range of genotypic and phenotypic variations including tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses. Conventional breeding for enhancing abiotic and biotic stress resistance in pearl millet have met with considerable success, however, in last few years various novel approaches including functional genomics and molecular breeding have been attempted in this crop for augmenting yield under adverse environmental conditions, and there is still a lot of scope for further improvement using genomic tools. Discovery and use of various DNA-based markers such as EST-SSRs, DArT, CISP, and SSCP-SNP in pearl millet not only help in determining population structure and genetic diversity but also prove to be important for developing strategies for crop improvement at a faster rate and greater precision. Molecular marker-based genetic linkage maps and identification of genomic regions determining yield under abiotic stresses particularly terminal drought have paved way for marker-assisted selection and breeding of pearl millet cultivars. Reference collections and marker-assisted backcrossing have also been used to improve biotic stress resistance in pearl millet specifically to downy mildew. Whole genome sequencing of pearl millet genome will give new insights for processing of functional genes and assist in crop improvement programs through molecular breeding approaches. This review thus summarizes the exploration of pearl millet genetic and genomic resources for improving abiotic and biotic stress resistance and development of cultivars superior in stress tolerance.
Highlights
INTRODUCTIONIt is a highly tillering, cross-pollinating millet crop with a short life cycle and a large genome size (∼2352 Mbp) (Bennett et al, 2000)
Pearl millet could serve as an excellent model for abiotic and biotic stress research owing to its hardy nature
Efforts should be focused on collection and characterization of pearl millet germplasm so that potential sources of genetic variation could be identified and incorporated
Summary
It is a highly tillering, cross-pollinating millet crop with a short life cycle and a large genome size (∼2352 Mbp) (Bennett et al, 2000) It is usually grown in marginal environments of arid and semi-arid regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent characterized by scanty and erratic rainfall, poor soil conditions and high temperature where staple cereals such as rice, wheat, maize, and even sorghum are likely to fail (Vadez et al, 2012). A pearl millet inbred germplasm association panel (PMiGAP) of about 346 lines was generated that represented a collection of approximately 1000 diverse cultivars, landraces and parents of mapping population from various regions of Africa and Asia, out of which 250 lines were used for association mapping of DT traits (Sehgal et al, 2015) This PMiGAP is thought to provide new insights for fine mapping of QTLs and allele mining of favorable genes for important agronomic traits. P. glaucum is the only cultivated species used for seed purpose while P. purpureum and its hybrids with pearl millet are usually cultivated for fodder in different parts of the world
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
