Fonio (Digitaria spp.) Breeding

Abdul, S. D.; Jideani, Afam I. O.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-23108-8_2

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Evolutionary history of fonio and its wild relative. To get an overview of the diversity and evolution of fonio, we selected 166 D. exilis accessions originating from Guinea, Mali, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Niger and 17 accessions of the proposed wild tetraploid fonio progenitor D. longiflora 21 from Cameroon, Nigeria, Guinea, Chad, Sudan, Kenya, Gabon, and Congo for whole-genome re-sequencing (Supplementary Table 6). The selection was done from a collection of 641 georeferenced D. exilis accessions 36 with the aim of maximizing diversity based on bioclimatic data and geographic origin.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been suggested that fonio was domesticated more than 5000 years ago in the Inner Niger Delta of central Mali. Compared to D. exilis, the wild D. longiflora shows even heavier seed shattering and hairy spikelets, which suggests that some selection for reduced seed shattering and spikelet hairiness occurred in fonio 21 . In the past few years, fonio has gained in popularity inside and outside of West Africa because of its nutritional qualities.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Fonio millet genome unlocks African orphan crop diversity for agriculture in a changing climate

et al. 2020

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Sustainable food production in the context of climate change necessitates diversification of agriculture and a more efficient utilization of plant genetic resources. Fonio millet (Digitaria exilis) is an orphan African cereal crop with a great potential for dryland agriculture. Here, we establish high-quality genomic resources to facilitate fonio improvement through molecular breeding. These include a chromosome-scale reference assembly and deep re-sequencing of 183 cultivated and wild Digitaria accessions, enabling insights into genetic diversity, population structure, and domestication. Fonio diversity is shaped by climatic, geographic, and ethnolinguistic factors. Two genes associated with seed size and shattering showed signatures of selection. Most known domestication genes from other cereal models however have not experienced strong selection in fonio, providing direct targets to rapidly improve this crop for agriculture in hot and dry environments.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Fonio millet genome unlocks African orphan crop diversity for agriculture in a changing climate

et al. 2020

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“…To get an overview of the diversity and evolution of fonio, we selected 166 D. exilis accessions originating from Guinea, Mali, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Niger and 17 accessions of the proposed wild tetraploid fonio progenitor D. longiflora 35 from Cameroon, Nigeria, Guinea, Chad, Soudan, Kenya, Gabon, and Congo for whole-genome re-sequencing. The selection was done from a collection of 641 georeferenced D. exilis accessions 36 with the aim of maximizing diversity based on bioclimatic data and geographic origin.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fonio millet genome unlocks African orphan crop diversity for agriculture in a changing climate

Abrouk

Ahmed

Cubry

et al. 2020

Preprint

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33Sustainable food production in the context of climate change necessitates diversification of 34 agriculture and a more efficient utilization of plant genetic resources. Fonio millet (Digitaria 35 exilis) is an orphan African cereal crop with a great potential for dryland agriculture. Here, we 36 established high-quality genomic resources to facilitate fonio improvement through molecular 37 breeding. These include a chromosome-scale reference assembly and deep re-sequencing of 183 38 cultivated and wild Digitaria accessions, enabling insights into genetic diversity, population 39 structure, and domestication. Fonio diversity is shaped by climatic, geographic, and ethnolinguistic 40 factors. Two genes associated with seed size and shattering showed signatures of selection. Most 41 known domestication genes from other cereal models however have not experienced strong 42 selection in fonio, providing direct targets to rapidly improve this crop for agriculture in hot and 43 dry environments. 44 45 agriculture 1-3 . The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) stated that arid 50 and semi-arid regions are the most vulnerable environments to increasing uncertainties in regional 51 and global food production 4 . In most countries of Africa and the Middle East, agricultural 52 productivity will decline in the near future 4 , because of climate change, land degradation, and 53 groundwater depletion 5 . Agricultural selection, from the early steps of domestication to modern-54 day crop breeding, has resulted in a marked decrease in agrobiodiversity 6,7 . Today, three cereal 55 4 crops alone, bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), maize (Zea mays), and rice (Oryza sativa) account 56 for more than half of the globally consumed calories 8 . 57Many of today's major cereal crops, including rice and maize, originated in relatively humid 58 tropical and sub-tropical regions 9,10 . Although plant breeding has adapted the major cereal crops 59 to a wide range of climates and cultivation practices, there is limited genetic diversity within these 60 few plant species for cultivation in the most extreme environments. On the other hand, crop wild 61 relatives and orphan crops are often adapted to extreme environments and their utility to unlock 62 marginal lands for agriculture has recently regained interest 2,6,[11][12][13][14] . Current technological advances 63 in genomics and genome editing provide an opportunity to rapidly domesticate wild relatives and 64 to improve orphan crops 15,16 . De novo domestication of wild species or rapid improvement of semi-65 domesticated crops can be achieved in less than a decade by targeting a few key genes 6 . 66White fonio (Digitaria exilis (Kippist) Stapf) (Fig. 1) is an indigenous African millet species with 67 a great potential for agriculture in marginal environments 17,18 . Fonio is cultivated under a large 68 range of environmental conditions, from a tropical monsoon climate in western Guinea to a hot, 69 arid desert climate (BWh) in the Sahel zone. Some extra-early matur...

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“…This is largely due to the fact that the grain is mostly grown on marginal lands with minimal input (Abdul & Jideani, 2019). Increasing effort to improve the genetic diversity and agronomic properties of fonio through breeding programs is being done with promising outlooks (Abdul & Jideani, 2019; Abrouk et al., 2020; Ayenan et al., 2018; Goler & Kwon‐Ndung, 2020; Jideani & Jideani, 2011; Kanlindogbe, Sekloka, & Kwon‐Ndung, 2020; Sidibé, Meldrum, Coulibaly, & Padulosi, 2020). Fertilizers may also be used to increase the fonio yield.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a significant amount of the new knowledge published. Fonio breeding has recently been reviewed (Abdul & Jideani, 2019). Fonio genome has been established (Abrouk et al., 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fonio grains: Physicochemical properties, nutritional potential, and food applications

Zhu

2020

Comp Rev Food Sci Food Safe

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Fonio grains are a type of small-seeded cereals native to Western Africa and are important cereal crops for food security. The two species are white fonio (Digitaria exilis) (commonly called acha) and black fonio (Digitaria iburua) (commonly called iburu). As a novel food, fonio has attracted attention from other parts of the world due to their attractive nutritional properties (e.g., in whole grain form and being gluten free) and potential food applications. The information regarding the functional properties and applications of fonio is rather scattered. This review summarizes the chemical composition, physicochemical and nutritional properties, and diverse food applications of fonio. The nutritional composition and processing properties of fonio are similar to other cereals. Fonio has potential to be complementary to major cereals for diverse food uses. There are research opportunities to better explore fonio grains for value-added applications.

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Fonio (Digitaria spp.) Breeding

Cited by 12 publications

References 59 publications

Fonio millet genome unlocks African orphan crop diversity for agriculture in a changing climate

Fonio millet genome unlocks African orphan crop diversity for agriculture in a changing climate

Fonio millet genome unlocks African orphan crop diversity for agriculture in a changing climate

Fonio grains: Physicochemical properties, nutritional potential, and food applications

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