27 research outputs found
Beyond Bird Feed: Proso Millet for Human Health and Environment
Domesticated in 8000–10,000 BP in northern China, proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is the best adaptive rotational crop for semiarid central High Plains of the USA, where average annual precipitation is 356–407 mm. Proso millet has multiple benefits when consumed as human food. Proso millet is rich in minerals, dietary fiber, polyphenols, vitamins and proteins. It is gluten-free and therefore, ideal for the gluten intolerant people. Proso millet contains high lecithin which supports the neural health system. It is rich in vitamins (niacin, B-complex vitamins, folic acid), minerals (P, Ca, Zn, Fe) and essential amino acids (methionine and cysteine). It has a low glycemic index and reduces the risk of type-2 diabetes. Unfortunately, in the USA, it is mostly considered as bird feed, whereas it is mainly used as human food in many other countries. Besides human health benefits, proso millet has an impeccable environmental benefit. Proso millet possesses many unique characteristics (e.g., drought tolerance, short-growing season) which makes it a promising rotational crop for winter wheat-based dryland farming systems. Proso millet provides the most economical production system when used in a two years wheat/summer fallow cropping system in semiarid High Plains of the USA. It helps in controlling winter annual grass weeds, managing disease and insect pressure and preserving deep soil moisture for wheat. Proso millet can also be used as a rotational crop with corn or sorghum owing to its tolerance for atrazine, the primary herbicide used in corn and sorghum production systems. Proso millet certainly is a climate-smart, gluten-free, ancient, and small grain cereal, which is healthy to humans and the environment. The main challenge is to expand the proso millet market beyond bird feed into the human food industry. To overcome the challenge, unique proso millet varieties for human food and ready-to-use multiple food products must be developed. This requires successful collaboration among experts from diverse disciplines such as breeders, geneticists, food chemists and food industry partners
Indigenous Lakadong turmeric of Meghalaya and its future prospects
Turmeric (Curcuma longa) has long been used in traditional Indian medicine. India accounts for 80% of total global turmeric production. Lakadong turmeric gets its name from the tiny village of Lakadong, which is located in the foothills of the Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya, India. It is known for having a high curcumin content of more than 7%, as opposed to 2 - 4% in regular varieties. The tribes of this region brought Lakadong turmeric from the forest and domesticated it for medicinal purposes centuries ago. Growth in local coal industries and a gradual decline in the market have had a significant impact on and reduced Lakadong turmeric production. To resurrect the industry, the Meghalaya government has embarked on a mission to increase production of Lakadong turmeric to 50,000 metric tons (MT) per year by 2023, up from 20,000 MT currently. However, most farmers in this region have abandoned Lakadong turmeric cultivation due to low returns. To ensure farmers’ livelihoods, policymakers and the government must address future production challenges and create a viable market for such commodities. This review paper discusses the traditional history of Lakadong cultivation and its current status, challenges, and prospects. The paper also discusses the agronomic, phytochemical, and medicinal properties of turmeric
SNP discovery in proso millet (\u3ci\u3ePanicum miliaceum\u3c/i\u3e L.) using lowpass genome sequencing
Domesticated ~10,000 years ago in northern China, Proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is a climate-resilient and human health-promoting cereal crop. The genome size of this self-pollinated allotetraploid is 923 Mb. Proso millet seeds are an important part of the human diet in many countries. In the USA, its use is restricted to the birdseed and pet food market. Proso millet is witnessing gradual demand in the global human health and wellness food market owing to its health-promoting properties such as low glycemic index and gluten-free. The breeding efforts for developing improved proso millet cultivars are hindered by the dearth of genomic resources available to researchers. The publication of the reference genome and availability of costeffective NGS methodologies could lead to the identification of high-quality genetic variants, which can be incorporated into breeding pipelines. Here, we report the identification of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) by low-pass (1x) genome sequencing of 85 diverse proso millet accessions from 23 different countries. The 2 x 150 bp Illumina paired-end reads generated after sequencing were aligned to the proso millet reference genome. The resulting sequence alignment information was used to call SNPs. We obtained 972,863 bi-allelic SNPs after quality filtering of the raw SNPs. These SNPs were used to assess the population structure and phylogenetic relationships among the accessions. Most of the accessions were found to be highly inbred with heterozygosity ranging between .05 and .20. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that PC1 (principal component) and PC2 explained 19% of the variability in the population. PCA also clustered all the genotypes into three groups. A neighbor-joining tree clustered the genotypes into four distinct groups exhibiting diverse representation within the population. The SNPs identified in our study could be used for molecular breeding and genetics research (e.g., genetic and association mapping, and population genetics) in proso millet after proper validation
Non-destructive classification and quality evaluation of proso millet cultivars using NIR hyperspectral imaging with machine learning
Millet is a small-seeded cereal crop with big potential and remarkable characteristics such as high drought resistance, short growing time, low water footprint, and the ability to grow in acidic soil. There is a need to develop nondestructive methods for differentiation and evaluation of the quality attributes of different of proso millet cultivars grown in the U.S. Current methods of cultivar classification are either subjective or destructive, time consuming, not allowing for the whole population to be tested, and requiring trained operators and special equipment. In this study, the feasibility of using near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging (900-1700 nm) to predict the quality attributes of proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) seeds as well to classify its different cultivars was demonstrated. Ten different cultivars of proso millet variety, which are the most popular in the US, investigated in this study included Cerise, Cope, Earlybird, Huntsman, Minco, Plateau, Rise, Snowbird, Sunrise, and Sunup. To reduce the large dimensionality of the hyperspectral imaging, principal component analysis (PCA) was applied, and the first two principal components were used as imaging features for building the classification models. The Classification performance showed a test accuracy rates as high as 99% for classifying the different cultivars of proso millet using gradient tree boosting ensemble machine learning algorithm. Moreover, using the partial least squares regression (PLSR) the coefficient of determination (R2) for quality prediction of proso millet seeds were 0.87, 0.80, 0.83, 0.93, and 0.92 for moisture content, crude protein, crude fat, ash, and carbohydrate, respectively. The overall results indicate that NIR hyperspectral imaging could be used to non-destructively classify and predict the quality of proso millet seeds
Targeted sequencing of the \u3ci\u3ePanicum miliaceum\u3c/i\u3e gene space and genotyping of variant sites from population genetics studies, combined in a single assay, as a tool for broomcorn millet assisted breeding
Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is a prehistorical cereal, today cultivated as a minor crop with low yields but with a renewed interest for its high water use effciency and gluten-free grains. To reverse the downward trend in broomcorn millet cultivation, the crop needs genetic improvement and creation of novel genetic variation to increase productivity. In order to facilitate genomics-assisted breeding, we designed a reduced representation genome-sequencing assay that investigates 1.8% of the nuclear DNA in a targeted and reproducible way, with an intensity of genomic sampling that is a direct function of local recombination rate. We used this tool and set up bioinformatics analyses tailored to the polyploid genome of P. miliaceum for maternity and paternity testing, quantification and genomic distribution of homozygous regions and estimation of parental genome contribution for individual seedlings in advanced inbred lines from a breeding program and compared their genomic composition with registered varieties. We found several clues that suggest that the genetic purifcation process to ensure genetic uniformity is incomplete in varieties of this species. Residual heterozygosity was detected in the genome of three registered varieties ranging from 4.4 to 6.25% of their haploid genome length. Other registered varieties show genome-wide homozygosity. We found, however, evidence of intravarietal genetic variation in three cases that suggest that the breeder seed or commercial seed production had fixed by self-pollination multiple inbred lines with very similar, though not identical, genotypes within each variety
EC11-101 Spring Seed Guide
Welcome to the 2011 Spring Seed Guide. Corn, soybean, sorghum, and alfalfa are included in this seed guide. This circular is a progress report of variety trials conducted by personnel of the Agronomy Department, West Central, and Northeast Extension Centers, and their associated agricultural laboratories and the associates of the University of Wyoming at SAREC
Adaptability of irrigated spring canola oil production to the US High Plains
Canola oil is high in oleic acid which is commonly used for food and industrial purposes. To determine adaptability of spring canola (Brassica napus L.) to the High Plains for industrial oil production, 26 irrigated trials were conducted from 2005 to 2008. Trials were divided into five regions—1: 36–37◦N 108◦W; 2: 39–40◦N 101–103◦W; 3: 41–42◦N 102–103◦W; 4: 41–42◦N 104◦W; 5: 43–44◦N 106–108◦W. Cultural practices were based on site-specific protocols. Four cultivars, Hyola 401, Hyola 357 Magnum, SW Marksman, and SW Patriot, were planted in replicated plots in April or May under standard irrigation and harvested in July to October depending on region. Seed yield Hyola 401 and Hyola 357 Magnum were higher than SW Marksman and SW Patriot across the five regions and within Regions 1, 2, 3, and 5. Regions 1, 2 and 3 yielded significantly greater than did Regions 4 and 5. Samples from 18 trials were examined for their oil content and fatty acid distribution. The four cultivars had greater than 38% oil content; SW Marksman and SW Patriot had higher oil content than Hyola 401 and Hyola 357 Mag. Higher oil content was achieved in Regions 1, 4 and 5. Across and within regions, the percent of oleic acid did not differ for the four cultivars. The mean content of oleic acid decreased going north from Region 2 to Region 5, as did seed yield in the High Plains. Linoleic acid increased going north from Region 1. Linolenic acids showed little variation across regions. Considering yield and total oil content together, growing spring canola would be excellent in the High Plains
Adaptability of irrigated spring canola oil production to the US High Plains
Canola oil is high in oleic acid which is commonly used for food and industrial purposes. To determine adaptability of spring canola (Brassica napus L.) to the High Plains for industrial oil production, 26 irrigated trials were conducted from 2005 to 2008. Trials were divided into five regions—1: 36–37◦N 108◦W; 2: 39–40◦N 101–103◦W; 3: 41–42◦N 102–103◦W; 4: 41–42◦N 104◦W; 5: 43–44◦N 106–108◦W. Cultural practices were based on site-specific protocols. Four cultivars, Hyola 401, Hyola 357 Magnum, SW Marksman, and SW Patriot, were planted in replicated plots in April or May under standard irrigation and harvested in July to October depending on region. Seed yield Hyola 401 and Hyola 357 Magnum were higher than SW Marksman and SW Patriot across the five regions and within Regions 1, 2, 3, and 5. Regions 1, 2 and 3 yielded significantly greater than did Regions 4 and 5. Samples from 18 trials were examined for their oil content and fatty acid distribution. The four cultivars had greater than 38% oil content; SW Marksman and SW Patriot had higher oil content than Hyola 401 and Hyola 357 Mag. Higher oil content was achieved in Regions 1, 4 and 5. Across and within regions, the percent of oleic acid did not differ for the four cultivars. The mean content of oleic acid decreased going north from Region 2 to Region 5, as did seed yield in the High Plains. Linoleic acid increased going north from Region 1. Linolenic acids showed little variation across regions. Considering yield and total oil content together, growing spring canola would be excellent in the High Plains
Registration of ‘NH03614 CL’ Wheat
‘NH03614 CL’ (Reg. No. CV-1051, PI 653833) hard red winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was developed cooperatively by the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station and the USDA-ARS and released in 2008 by the developing institutions and the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station and the Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station. In addition to researchers at the releasing institutions, USDA-ARS researchers at Manhattan, KS and St. Paul, MN participated in the development of NH03614 CL. NH03614 CL was selected from the cross ‘Wesley’ sib//‘Millennium’ sib/‘Above’ sib that was made in the spring of 1997 to develop new herbicide-tolerant cultivars. NH03614 CL was selected using the bulk breeding method as an F3:4 line (F3–derived line in the F4 generation) in 2001, and in 2003 was assigned experimental line number NH03164. NH03614 CL was released primarily for its herbicide tolerance to imadazolinone compounds which control many previously diffi cult-to-control weeds in wheat production systems, and for its superior adaptation to rainfed wheat production systems in Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, and counties in adjacent states
Beyond Bird Feed: Proso Millet for Human Health and Environment
Domesticated in 8000–10,000 BP in northern China, proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is the best adaptive rotational crop for semiarid central High Plains of the USA, where average annual precipitation is 356–407 mm. Proso millet has multiple benefits when consumed as human food. Proso millet is rich in minerals, dietary fiber, polyphenols, vitamins and proteins. It is gluten-free and therefore, ideal for the gluten intolerant people. Proso millet contains high lecithin which supports the neural health system. It is rich in vitamins (niacin, B-complex vitamins, folic acid), minerals (P, Ca, Zn, Fe) and essential amino acids (methionine and cysteine). It has a low glycemic index and reduces the risk of type-2 diabetes. Unfortunately, in the USA, it is mostly considered as bird feed, whereas it is mainly used as human food in many other countries. Besides human health benefits, proso millet has an impeccable environmental benefit. Proso millet possesses many unique characteristics (e.g., drought tolerance, short-growing season) which makes it a promising rotational crop for winter wheat-based dryland farming systems. Proso millet provides the most economical production system when used in a two years wheat/summer fallow cropping system in semiarid High Plains of the USA. It helps in controlling winter annual grass weeds, managing disease and insect pressure and preserving deep soil moisture for wheat. Proso millet can also be used as a rotational crop with corn or sorghum owing to its tolerance for atrazine, the primary herbicide used in corn and sorghum production systems. Proso millet certainly is a climate-smart, gluten-free, ancient, and small grain cereal, which is healthy to humans and the environment. The main challenge is to expand the proso millet market beyond bird feed into the human food industry. To overcome the challenge, unique proso millet varieties for human food and ready-to-use multiple food products must be developed. This requires successful collaboration among experts from diverse disciplines such as breeders, geneticists, food chemists and food industry partners