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Review
. 2021 Mar 30:12:645038.
doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.645038. eCollection 2021.

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

Om Parkash Yadav  1 , S K Gupta  2 , Mahalingam Govindaraj  2 , Rajan Sharma  2 , Rajeev K Varshney  2   3 , Rakesh K Srivastava  2 , A Rathore  2 , Rajendra Singh Mahala  4
Affiliations
Review

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

Om Parkash Yadav et al. Front Plant Sci. .

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.

Keywords: biofortification; disease resistance; drought tolerance; genetic gain; heat tolerance; hybrid breeding; pearl millet.

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Conflict of interest statement

RM was employed by company SeedWorks International Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad, India. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Three mega-environments (designated as A1, A- and B- zones) of pearl millet cultivation in India.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of different traits in seed parents (A/B-lines) developed between 1981 and 2019 at ICRISAT, Patancheru (PL, panicle length; TGW, thousand grains weight; PD, panicle diameter; NPT, number of productive tillers per plant).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Per cent improvement in the national average yield of sorghum, wheat, rice, maize, and pearl millet from 1988 to 2017 over average yields of the quinquennial period of 1983-1987 (data source: www.agricoop.nic.in).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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