Genetics of Qualitative Traits in Pearl Millet: A Review

Abstract

Pearl millet, Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br., is the principal food cereal on 25 million ha of the drought‐prone semiarid regions of Africa and the Indian subcontinent. It is also used as a forage in Australia, southern Africa, South America, and the USA, and has shown regions. Recent increased levels of breeding and genetic research, now including gene mapping, have indicated a need for a current comprehensive review of accumulated genetic information on qualitative traits in this species. The present decriptive review attempts to meet this need and reports 167 studies. since 1934, on 145 characters in 12 categories: chlorophyll deficiencies, foliage striping, leaf characters, pubescence, plant form, pigmentation, earhead characters, reproductive structures and gamete formation, sterility, seed characters, earliness and maturity, and disease resistance. Gene symbols, where assigned by authors, are listed, and the nature of genetic effects are given. Known linkages and biochemical genetic markers are also reviewed. A comsistent nomenclature system should be developed and followed in the future, and a locaton designated for the deposition of genetic stocks.

Chemical composition and in situ ruminal nutrient degradability of normal and brown midrib forage pearl millet grown in southwestern Québec

“…is a tall, warm season, annual grass extensively used for forage production in Africa, Australia, and South America, and to some extent in the Southern USA (Kumar and Andrews 1993). There is limited information on the potential of forage millet in temperate zones, although at present it seems a viable option on sandy soils of Eastern Canada (Banks and Stewart 1998).…”

Association analysis of low-phosphorus tolerance in West African pearl millet using DArT markers

“…Saidou et al (2009Saidou et al ( , 2014 showed that the region around the PHYTOCHROME C (PHYC) gene is responsible for FLO variation in pearl millet and identified an early-flowering allele within the PHYC region. Similarly, two independently segregating, recessively inherited genes, e 1 and e 2 , were previously shown to confer photoperiod-insensitive early flowering in pearl millet (Anand Kumar and Andrews 1993), and many other relatively early-maturing pearl millets exhibit dominant or partially dominant early flowering that is very useful in breeding early-maturing hybrids (e.g., A/B-pairs 834A/B, 842A/B, 843A/B, 863A/B and ICMA/B 88004, all of which appear to have an early-maturing, bold-seeded, agronomically elite Iniari landrace-based parentage (Andrews and Kumar 1996;Stegmeier et al 1998a, b;Rai et al 1995Rai et al , 2008. Due to the current lack of information concerning map positions of most of the markers identified to be significantly associated with FLO in the current study, it is not possible yet to compare them with previously reported QTLs and/or genes associated with flowering time in pearl millet.…”

Effects of Selection for Yield Components on Grain Yield in Pearl Millet (Pennisetum typhoideumRich.)

“…Pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoideum Rich. ), the principal food cereal in semiarid regions of Africa and the Indian Subcontinent and a forage in Australia, Southern Africa, South America and the USA, is a potential earlymaturing summer grain crop in temperate regions (Anand Kumar and Andrews, 1993;Yoshida and Sumida, 1996).…”