Phosphorus uptake and utilization efficiency in West African pearl millet inbred lines

Abstract

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br] production on the acid sandy Sahelian soils in West Africa (WA) is severely limited by low plant-available phosphorus (P) in addition to erratic rainfall. We sought to examine the genetic variability for P uptake and P utilization efficiency in 180 WA pearl millet inbred lines or subsets thereof under low (LP) and high P (HP) conditions in one field and two pot experiments, determine the relationships among the measured traits and grain yield under field conditions at three other independent WA sites, and identify potential secondary selection traits for improving grain yield under LP. We observed genetic variation for P uptake and utilization in both seedling and mature plants. P utilization efficiency increased under LP conditions. Total P uptake was more important for grain production than P utilization under LP field conditions (r = 0.57*** vs r = 0.30***). The estimated response to indirect selection was positive for most of the measured morphological and P-efficiency parameters. We conclude that both seedling and mature plant traits are potentially useful as secondary traits in selection of pearl millet for low-P adaptation. These results should be validated using heterozygous pearl millet genetic materials. Ultimately, pearl millet breeding activities for low P tolerance in WA should be integrated with other system-oriented research such as nutrient cycling, intercropping or rotations with legumes, better crop-tree-livestock integration, and modest applications of locally available rock phosphate.

Identifying markers associated with yield traits in Nagina22 rice mutants grown in low phosphorus field or in alternate wet/dry conditions

“…Tiller number, number of roots, and shoot biomass per plant is associated with phosphorus deficiency tolerance (Raghothama, 1999;Wissuwa and Ae, 2001). A larger genetic variation for P uptake traits relative to P utilization has also been reported in wheat, maize, rice, sorghum and pearl millet (Jones et al, 1989;Wissuwa et al, 1998;Parentoniet al, 2010;Leiser et al, 2014;Gemenet et al, 2015).…”

Nanophosphorus Fertilizer Stimulates Growth and Photosynthetic Activity and Improves P Status in Rice

“…Hence, P releasing dynamics of the absorbed form in nanofertilizers was much slower than that of the ionic forms. Phosphorus uptake efficiency is defined as the capacity of the roots to absorb P from the growth medium [22]. Under our experimental conditions, uptake efficiency of KH 2 PO 4 was 90.6%, that of nano-KH 2 PO 4 was 84.63%, and that of nano-KH 2 PO 4 with trypsin was 77.16%.…”

Pearl millet

“…Pearl millet production on acid sandy soils of the Sahel is limited by low-P status. For low-P tolerance, both seedling and mature plant traits were found useful for selection as secondary traits (Gemenet et al, 2015). Diverse germplasm including breeding lines, varieties, and landraces with resistance to abiotic stresses has been summarized by Dwivedi et al (2012).…”