The Challenges and Opportunities Associated with Biofortification of Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucum) with Elevated Levels of Grain Iron and Zinc

Deficiencies of essential micronutrients such as iron and zinc are the cause of extensive health problems in developing countries. They adversely affect performance, productivity and are a major hindrance to economic development. Since many people who suffer from micronutrient deficiencies are dependent on staple crops to meet their dietary requirements, the development of crop cultivars with increased levels of micronutrients in their edible parts is becoming increasingly recognized as a sustainable solution. This is largely facilitated by genetics and genomic platforms. The cereal crop pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), is an excellent candidate for genetic improvement due to its ability to thrive in dry, semi-arid regions, where farming conditions are often unfavorable. Not only does pearl millet grow in areas where other crops such as maize and wheat do not survive, it contains naturally high levels of micronutrients, proteins and a myriad of other health benefitting characteristics. This review discusses the current status of iron and zinc deficiencies and reasons why interventions such as fortification, supplementation, and soil management are neither practicable nor affordable in poverty stricken areas. We argue that the most cost effective, sustainable intervention strategy is to biofortify pearl millet with enhanced levels of bioavailable iron and zinc. We discuss how naturally occurring genetic variations present in germplasm collections can be incorporated into elite, micronutrient rich varieties and what platforms are available to drive this research. We also consider the logistics of transgenic methods that could facilitate the improvement of the pearl millet gene pool

Dietary interventions for type 2 diabetes: How millet comes to help

Diabetes has become a highly problematic and increasingly prevalent disease world-wide. It has contributed towards 1.5 million deaths in 2012. Management techniques for diabetes prevention in high-risk as well as in affected individuals, beside medication, are mainly through changes in lifestyle and dietary regulation. Particularly, diet can have a great influence on life quality for those that suffer from, as well as those at risk of, diabetes. As such, considerations on nutritional aspects are required to be made to include in dietary intervention. This review aims to give an overview on the general consensus of current dietary and nutritional recommendation for diabetics. In light of such recommendation, the use of plant breeding, conventional as well as more recently developed molecular marker-based breeding and biofortification, are discussed in designing crops with desired characteristics. While there are various recommendations available, dietary choices are restricted by availability due to geo-, political- or economical- considerations. This particularly holds true for countries such as India, where 65 million people (up from 50 million in 2010) are currently diabetic and their numbers are rising at an alarming rate. Millets are one of the most abundant crops grown in India as well as in Africa, providing a staple food source for many poorest of the poor communities in these countries. The potentials of millets as a dietary component to combat the increasing prevalence of global diabetes are highlighted in this review

Accessing and Dissecting Genomic Regions for High Grain Iron and Zinc Content Using GWAS in Pearl Millet

On a global scale, over three billion people suffer from chronic micronutrient malnutrition with Fe and Zn deficiencies being the most prevalent. This is a persistent challenge for global development, the consequences of which predominantly apply to nutritionally vulnerable populations within developing countries. Pearl millet is accessible to most of these populations and has many nutritional properties, as compared with other staple crops. Fe and Zn levels were quantified in a pearl millet germplasm population consisting of 230 diverse lines by ICP-AES and ranged between 29.18?135.27mg/kg and 22.07?93.28mg/kg, respectively. Anti-nutritional factors affecting Fe/Zn bioavailability were also considered, including the effects of phytate and two metal chelating flavonoids ~ Apigenin and Luteolin. STRUCTURE analysis revealed insignificant population structure, further supported by PCA. The extent of LD was also assessed among all pairs of loci and found to be especially prominent on chromosomes 3 and 5. A GWAS using 3 million pearl millet SNPs, generated by GBS resulted in hundreds of significant marker trait associations for grain Fe and Zn content with P-values ranging from 3.99 E-06?7.54 E-07. Using the 4kb region surrounding the 35 most significant SNPs, a BLASTn search of the NCBI database revealed 6 candidate genes associated with Fe/Zn uptake, the most significant of which being the YUCCA-11 gene, which is known to drive Zn efficiency via auxin biosynthesis. This study can aid the breeding of elite lines with enhanced micronutrient levels in pearl millet, leading to improved health and well-being especially for women and children.Non peer reviewe