Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) improvement: Challenges and prospects-A review

Finger millet is a climate-resilient and highly nutritious small grain crop widely grown in the semi-arid tropics. It has multiple uses, including for food, feed and beverage preparations. However, finger millet is an under-utilized and under-researched crop with a mean yield of <1.0 t/ha despite a...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Gebreyohannes, Adane, Shimelis, Hussein, Mashilo, Jacob, Odeny, Damaris A., Tadesse, Taye, Ojiewo, Chris O.
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Wiley 2024
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/162529
_version_ 1855542872464424960
author Gebreyohannes, Adane
Shimelis, Hussein
Mashilo, Jacob
Odeny, Damaris A.
Tadesse, Taye
Ojiewo, Chris O.
author_browse Gebreyohannes, Adane
Mashilo, Jacob
Odeny, Damaris A.
Ojiewo, Chris O.
Shimelis, Hussein
Tadesse, Taye
author_facet Gebreyohannes, Adane
Shimelis, Hussein
Mashilo, Jacob
Odeny, Damaris A.
Tadesse, Taye
Ojiewo, Chris O.
author_sort Gebreyohannes, Adane
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Finger millet is a climate-resilient and highly nutritious small grain crop widely grown in the semi-arid tropics. It has multiple uses, including for food, feed and beverage preparations. However, finger millet is an under-utilized and under-researched crop with a mean yield of <1.0 t/ha despite a potential productivity of up to 8 t/ha. The yield gap is attributed to several production constraints, such as biotic and abiotic stresses, a lack of access to improved seeds and production inputs and poor agronomic management practices. There are valuable genetic resources and genetic variability of finger millet in its centres of diversity and global gene banks for variety design, product development and commercialization. The genetic variability can be harnessed further to integrate essential traits into candidate varieties through conventional and modern breeding methods. Breeding and genetic innovations such as genomics-assisted breeding, mutation breeding and genome editing would accelerate finger millet breeding and new variety design and deployment. The objective of this review was to document the opportunities, challenges and prospects of finger millet improvement as a guide for variety development and deployment with enhanced grain yield and nutritional contents. The first section describes global production status and yield gains, major production and productivity challenges in finger millet. This is followed by an in-depth presentation on breeding and genetic progress on variety development with improved agronomic and nutritional quality traits, drought and salinity tolerance, and fungal diseases, weeds and insect pest resistance. Further, the review summarized finger millet's genetic and genomic resources, reference genomes, whole genome re-sequencing and transcriptomics of finger millet technologies, genetic engineering and genome editing and their integration with conventional breeding methods for variety design with desired end-use traits. The review provides foundational information to expedite the development of new-generation finger millet cultivars with desirable product profiles, including high grain yield potential, early maturity, desirable seed colour, compact head type, food and feed nutrients quality and high marketability through modern breeding approaches.
format Journal Article
id CGSpace162529
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2024
publishDateRange 2024
publishDateSort 2024
publisher Wiley
publisherStr Wiley
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace1625292025-12-08T10:06:44Z Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) improvement: Challenges and prospects-A review Gebreyohannes, Adane Shimelis, Hussein Mashilo, Jacob Odeny, Damaris A. Tadesse, Taye Ojiewo, Chris O. millets eleusine coracana genetic engineering genetic gain gene editing production genomes Finger millet is a climate-resilient and highly nutritious small grain crop widely grown in the semi-arid tropics. It has multiple uses, including for food, feed and beverage preparations. However, finger millet is an under-utilized and under-researched crop with a mean yield of <1.0 t/ha despite a potential productivity of up to 8 t/ha. The yield gap is attributed to several production constraints, such as biotic and abiotic stresses, a lack of access to improved seeds and production inputs and poor agronomic management practices. There are valuable genetic resources and genetic variability of finger millet in its centres of diversity and global gene banks for variety design, product development and commercialization. The genetic variability can be harnessed further to integrate essential traits into candidate varieties through conventional and modern breeding methods. Breeding and genetic innovations such as genomics-assisted breeding, mutation breeding and genome editing would accelerate finger millet breeding and new variety design and deployment. The objective of this review was to document the opportunities, challenges and prospects of finger millet improvement as a guide for variety development and deployment with enhanced grain yield and nutritional contents. The first section describes global production status and yield gains, major production and productivity challenges in finger millet. This is followed by an in-depth presentation on breeding and genetic progress on variety development with improved agronomic and nutritional quality traits, drought and salinity tolerance, and fungal diseases, weeds and insect pest resistance. Further, the review summarized finger millet's genetic and genomic resources, reference genomes, whole genome re-sequencing and transcriptomics of finger millet technologies, genetic engineering and genome editing and their integration with conventional breeding methods for variety design with desired end-use traits. The review provides foundational information to expedite the development of new-generation finger millet cultivars with desirable product profiles, including high grain yield potential, early maturity, desirable seed colour, compact head type, food and feed nutrients quality and high marketability through modern breeding approaches. 2024-06 2024-11-21T15:34:24Z 2024-11-21T15:34:24Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/162529 en Open Access application/pdf Wiley Gebreyohannes, A., Shimelis, H., Mashilo, J., Odeny, D. A., Tadesse, T., & Ojiewo, C. O. (2024). Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) improvement: Challenges and prospects—A review. Plant Breeding, 143(3), 350-374. https://doi.org/10.1111/pbr.13169
spellingShingle millets
eleusine coracana
genetic engineering
genetic gain
gene editing
production
genomes
Gebreyohannes, Adane
Shimelis, Hussein
Mashilo, Jacob
Odeny, Damaris A.
Tadesse, Taye
Ojiewo, Chris O.
Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) improvement: Challenges and prospects-A review
title Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) improvement: Challenges and prospects-A review
title_full Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) improvement: Challenges and prospects-A review
title_fullStr Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) improvement: Challenges and prospects-A review
title_full_unstemmed Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) improvement: Challenges and prospects-A review
title_short Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) improvement: Challenges and prospects-A review
title_sort finger millet eleusine coracana improvement challenges and prospects a review
topic millets
eleusine coracana
genetic engineering
genetic gain
gene editing
production
genomes
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/162529
work_keys_str_mv AT gebreyohannesadane fingermilleteleusinecoracanaimprovementchallengesandprospectsareview
AT shimelishussein fingermilleteleusinecoracanaimprovementchallengesandprospectsareview
AT mashilojacob fingermilleteleusinecoracanaimprovementchallengesandprospectsareview
AT odenydamarisa fingermilleteleusinecoracanaimprovementchallengesandprospectsareview
AT tadessetaye fingermilleteleusinecoracanaimprovementchallengesandprospectsareview
AT ojiewochriso fingermilleteleusinecoracanaimprovementchallengesandprospectsareview