Genetic Gains in Pearl Millet in India: Insights Into Historic Breeding Strategies and Future Perspective

Abstract

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum R. Br.) is an important staple and nutritious food crop in the semiarid and arid ecologies of South Asia (SA) and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In view of climate change, depleting water resources, and widespread malnutrition, there is a need to accelerate the rate of genetic gains in pearl millet productivity. This review discusses past strategies and future approaches to accelerate genetic gains to meet future demand. Pearl millet breeding in India has historically evolved very comprehensively from open-pollinated varieties development to hybrid breeding. Availability of stable cytoplasmic male sterility system with adequate restorers and strategic use of genetic resources from India and SSA laid the strong foundation of hybrid breeding. Genetic and cytoplasmic diversification of hybrid parental lines, periodic replacement of hybrids, and breeding disease-resistant and stress-tolerant cultivars have been areas of very high priority. As a result, an annual yield increase of 4% has been realized in the last three decades. There is considerable scope to further accelerate the efforts on hybrid breeding for drought-prone areas in SA and SSA. Heterotic grouping of hybrid parental lines is essential to sustain long-term genetic gains. Time is now ripe for mainstreaming of the nutritional traits improvement in pearl millet breeding programs. New opportunities are emerging to improve the efficiency and precision of breeding. Development and application of high-throughput genomic tools, speed breeding, and precision phenotyping protocols need to be intensified to exploit a huge wealth of native genetic variation available in pearl millet to accelerate the genetic gains.

Pearl Millet: A Climate-Resilient Nutricereal for Mitigating Hidden Hunger and Provide Nutritional Security

“…Pearl millet is the first crop in which marker-assisted-selection (MAS) strategies and tools were applied to get improved varieties. Yadav et al ( 2021 ) discussed various past strategies and future approaches to accelerate genetic gains to meet future demand. Further, they also emphasized the importance of genome editing, pre-breeding, precision phenotyping protocols and speed breeding approaches for pearl millet improvement and enhanced genetic gains.…”

“…(Serba and Yadav, 2016 ). Genetic improvement of pearl millet through increased production was realized using hybrid technology and conventional breeding methods of selection (Yadav and Rai, 2013 ; Yadav et al, 2021 ) but later, various biotechnological and genomic approaches were used for further improvement (Varshney et al, 2017 ; Bollam et al, 2018 ; Ambawat et al, 2020 ). Genetic maps, next-generation sequencing (NGS), genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS), genome-wide association studies (GWAS), synteny studies, expression profiling, fine QTL mapping, candidate gene identification and genetic engineering, gene pyramiding, bioinformatics and systems biology are some of the useful platforms, which are further being used for the genetic improvement of this nutricereal.…”

Genetic insights in pearl millet breeding in the genomic era: challenges and prospects

“…With the advent of new sequencing techniques, all accessions can be genotyped and phenotyped at low cost both effectively and efficiently. Additionally, wild relatives of pearl millet offer excellent sources of genes for agronomic traits and various abiotic stresses (Yadav et al 2021 ).…”

Improvement of small seed for big nutritional feed

“…There is a need to find out about consumer acceptability coupled with sensory satisfaction with enhanced levels of Ca 2+ and micronutrients in the millets. Furthermore, market avenues for such special grains with improved nutritional quality (varieties and hybrids) do not exist now, therefore, Governmental organizations and private seed companies need to devise strategies for marketing to address malnutrition (Yadav et al 2021 ). Consumption of biofortified pearl millet improved the cognitive outcomes in adolescents with an increase in the bioavailability of Fe and Zn in studies conducted in few states of India (Kodkany et al 2013 ), but not from other millets.…”