We investigated nucleotide polymorphism in the Adh1 locus of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) (Poaceae) by determining the DNA sequence of 20 alleles from 10 individuals. The individuals were sampled from throughout pearl millet's indigenous range and represent both wild and cultivated accessions. Our results indicated that there is little nucleotide polymorphism in the Adh1 locus. Estimates o...

Simulations of gastro-intestinal digestion, used to estimate in vitro iron and zinc availability, were performed on two kinds of samples: (i) samples with decreased phytate contents from whole pearl millet flour and (ii) nondephytinized or dephytinized samples from two pearl millet grain fractions, a decorticated fraction with low fiber and tannin contents and a bran fraction with high fiber an...

About 26% of the Indian population is deficient in calories and 28% in protein (Chand et al. 2003). The deficiency is most acute among the poor. The magnitude of micronutrient [iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn)] deficit is particularly alarming among children, women of reproductive age, and pregnant and lactating women (Sharma 2003). Current efforts to combat micronutrient malnutrition in the developing ...

Sorghum-sudangrass hybrids and pearl millet, Pennisetum americanum (L.) Leeke., are grown extensively in the southeastern United States; the former is used for forage, seed, and summer cover crop and the latter, primarily for grazing, forage, and summer cover crop. The extended period during which these crops can be planted makes them especially adapted to a doublecropping system with winter-gr...

Finger millet is an ancient African cereal crop, domesticated 7000 years ago in Ethiopia, reaching India at 3000 BC. Finger millet is reported to be resistant to various fungal pathogens including Fusarium sp. We hypothesized that finger millet may host beneficial endophytes (plant-colonizing microbes) that contribute to the antifungal activity. Here we report the first isolation of endophyte(s...

Rice, wheat, sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet are the major cereal staples of Indian households but sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet are only consumed in the regions in which they are cultivated. Sorghum is the staple of central and western regions of Maharashtra and the northern regions of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and pearl millet is mainly consumed in the western states of I...

Six cowpea genotypes (Danila, IT96D-772, IT90K-277-2, IT95K-1091-3, IT96D-740, IT96D-757) were intercropped with a local millet cultivar using four row arrangements (1:1, 1:2, 2:2 and 2:4 millet to cowpea rows) in a field experiment conducted at Minjibir near Kano in the Sudan savanna ecological zone of Nigeria during the 1999 and 2000 wet seasons. Cowpea genotypes and row arrangement had no ef...

Pearl millet, Pennisetum glaucum, has potential as a grain crop in the southeastern United States. Although it is used as a food grain in India and Africa, its primary use in the United States is high quality feed for poultry and livestock (1,6,15). Hybrids adapted to the southeast should be high yielding, resistant to the rust fungus Puccinia substriata var. indica, and early maturing. The two...