Award details

Marker-assisted selection, QTLs and contig lines for improving downy mildew resistance of pearl millet hybrids

Reference	BBS/E/J/00003213
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Mike Gale
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	11,147
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/07/1997
End date	30/06/1999
Duration	24 months

Abstract

Pearl millet is the staple food and fodder crop of millions of poor farm families living in the hottest, driest agricultural environments in Asia and Africa. Downy mildew epidemics, caused by Sclerospora graminicola (Sacc.) J. Schrot, constitute the major risk associated with its cultivation that can be reduced by effective crop improvement research. This project broadens the range of identified host plant resistance genes for pearl millet available to plant breeders for areas, principally in arid and semi-arid regions of India, where hybrid pearl millets are grown. Further, it familiarises a wider range of breeders in these areas with marker-assisted selection, and actively involves them in application of this new tool in improving economically important traits of hybrid parental lines developed in their own breeding programmes. A direct result of this will be a wider array of host plant resistances available in the genetic backgrounds of economically important single- cross hybrid cultivars. Strategies for more effectively using these improved parental lines to achieve durable host plant resistance to downy mildew will be popularised. When used as parents of new hybrids (including backcross derivatives of currently important commercial hybrids), these will contribute substantially to increasing genetic diversity for host plant resistance, and other traits, in farmers' fields, substantially reducing the probability of another major pearl millet down mildew epidemic in India.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Plant & Microbial Sciences (PMS)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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