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Publications

Journal Article Review Ppublish

PubMed: 39724286 DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erae507

Millets for a sustainable future.

J Exp Bot 76(6):1534-1545

Authors: Arindam Ghatak, Iro Pierides, Roshan Kumar Singh, Rakesh K Srivastava, Rajeev K Varshney, Manoj Prasad, Palak Chaturvedi, Wolfram Weckwerth

Affiliations

  • Molecular Systems Biology Lab (MOSYS), Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, University of Vienna, Djerassiplatz 1, 1030 Vienna, Austria.
  • Vienna Metabolomics Center (VIME), University of Vienna, Djerassiplatz 1, 1030 Vienna, Austria.
  • Department of Botany, Mahishadal Raj College, Purba Medinipur, Garh Kamalpur, West Bengal 721628, India.
  • Center of Excellence in Genomics & Systems Biology, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, India.
  • WA State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre, Centre for Crop & Food Innovation, Food Futures Institute, Murdoch University, Murdoch, 6150, Western Australia, Australia.
  • National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi 110067, India.
  • Department of Genetics, University of Delhi, South Campus, Benito-Juarez Road, New Delhi 110021, India.

Abstract

Our current agricultural system faces a perfect storm-climate change, a burgeoning population, and unpredictable outbreaks such as COVID-19 which disrupt food production, particularly for vulnerable populations in developing countries. A paradigm shift in agriculture practices is needed to tackle these issues. One solution is the diversification of crop production. While ~56% of the plant-based protein stems from three major cereal crops (rice, wheat, and maize), underutilized crops such as millets, legumes, and other cereals are highly neglected by farmers and the research community. Millets are one of the most ancient and versatile orphan crops with attributes such as fast growing, high yielding, withstanding harsh environments, and rich in micronutrients such as iron and zinc, making them appealing to achieve agronomic sustainability. Here, we highlight the contribution of millet to agriculture and focus on the genetic diversity of millet, genomic resources, and next-generation omics and their applications under various stress conditions. Additionally, integrative omics technologies could identify and develop millets with desirable phenotypes having high agronomic value and mitigating climate change. We emphasize that biotechnological interventions, such as genome-wide association, genomic selection, genome editing, and artificial intelligence/machine learning, can improve and breed millets more effectively.

MeSH

Agriculture, Breeding, Climate, Genome, Research, Artificial Intelligence, Botany