Genetic and genomic interventions in crop biofortification: Examples in millets.

Micronutrient malnutrition is a serious threat to the developing world's human population, which largely relies on a cereal-based diet that lacks diversity and micronutrients. Besides major cereals, millets represent the key sources of energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals for people residing in the dryland tropics and drought-prone areas of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Millets serve as multi-purpose crops with several salient traits including tolerance to abiotic stresses, adaptation to diverse agro-ecologies, higher productivity in nutrient-poor soils, and rich nutritional characteristics.

Genomic regions associated with heat stress tolerance in tropical maize (Zea mays L.).

With progressive climate change and the associated increase in mean temperature, heat stress tolerance has emerged as one of the key traits in the product profile of the maize breeding pipeline for lowland tropics. The present study aims to identify the genomic regions associated with heat stress tolerance in tropical maize. An association mapping panel, called the heat tolerant association mapping (HTAM) panel, was constituted by involving a total of 543 tropical maize inbred lines from diverse genetic backgrounds, test-crossed and phenotyped across nine locations in South Asia under natural heat stress.

Selenium Biofortification: Roles, Mechanisms, Responses and Prospects.

The trace element selenium (Se) is a crucial element for many living organisms, including soil microorganisms, plants and animals, including humans. Generally, in Nature Se is taken up in the living cells of microorganisms, plants, animals and humans in several inorganic forms such as selenate, selenite, elemental Se and selenide. These forms are converted to organic forms by biological process, mostly as the two selenoamino acids selenocysteine (SeCys) and selenomethionine (SeMet).

Genomic Prediction with Genotype by Environment Interaction Analysis for Kernel Zinc Concentration in Tropical Maize Germplasm.

Zinc (Zn) deficiency is a major risk factor for human health, affecting about 30% of the world's population. To study the potential of genomic selection (GS) for maize with increased Zn concentration, an association panel and two doubled haploid (DH) populations were evaluated in three environments. Three genomic prediction models, M (M1: Environment + Line, M2: Environment + Line + Genomic, and M3: Environment + Line + Genomic + Genomic x Environment) incorporating main effects (lines and genomic) and the interaction between genomic and environment (G x E) were assessed to estimate the prediction ability ( ) for each model.

Identification and validation of genomic regions influencing kernel zinc and iron in maize.

Genome-wide association study (GWAS) on 923 maize lines and validation in bi-parental populations identified significant genomic regions for kernel-Zinc and-Iron in maize. Bio-fortification of maize with elevated Zinc (Zn) and Iron (Fe) holds considerable promise for alleviating under-nutrition among the world's poor. Bio-fortification through molecular breeding could be an economical strategy for developing nutritious maize, and hence in this study, we adopted GWAS to identify markers associated with high kernel-Zn and Fe in maize and subsequently validated marker-trait associations in independent bi-parental populations.

Genome-wide association study in Asia-adapted tropical maize reveals novel and explored genomic regions for sorghum downy mildew resistance.

Globally, downy mildews are among the important foliar diseases of maize that cause significant yield losses. We conducted a genome-wide association study for sorghum downy mildew (SDM; Peronosclerospora sorghi) resistance in a panel of 368 inbred lines adapted to the Asian tropics. High density SNPs from Genotyping-by-sequencing were used in GWAS after controlling for population structure and kinship in the panel using a single locus mixed model.

Genomic-based-breeding tools for tropical maize improvement.

Maize has traditionally been the main staple diet in the Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and widely grown by millions of resource poor small scale farmers. Approximately, 35.4 million hectares are sown to tropical maize, constituting around 59% of the developing worlds.