Pearl millet,
Pennisetum glaucum
(L.) R. Brown (=
Pennisetum typhoides
(Burm.) Stapf et
Hubb.), is the most important member of the genus
Pennisetum
of the tribe Paniceae in the family
Poaceae. The name
Pennisetum
was derived as a hybrid of two Latin words —
penna
, meaning
feather, and
seta
, meaning bristle — and describes the typically feathery bristles of its species
(Jauhar 1981a). Pearl millet is the sixth most important cereal crop in the world, ranking after
wheat, rice, maize, barley, and sorghum. It is a valuable grain and fodder crop and is cultivated in
many parts of the world, although in the U.S. it is grown primarily as a forage crop on less than
1 million ha. In tropical and warm-temperature regions of Australia and some other countries, it
is also grown as a forage crop (Jauhar 1981a).
Pearl millet is an ideal organism for basic and applied research. In their extensive reviews,
Jauhar (1981a) and Jauhar and Hanna (1998) compiled the available literature on cytogenetics and
breeding of pearl millet and related species. This article covers some basic aspects of cytogenetics
of pearl millet, its cytogenetic manipulation with a view to enrich it with alien genes, aspects of
heterosis breeding facilitated by the cytoplasmic-nuclear male sterility (CMS) system and possibly
by apomixis, and direct gene transfer into otherwise superior cultivars
