A field experiment was conducted during kharif, 2014 at Tirupati with four foxtail millet varieties (SiA 3088, SiA 3085, SiA 3156 and Srilaxmi) in combination with three nitrogen levels (0, 25, 50 kg N ha -1 ). The results of the experiment revealed that among the four foxtail millet varieties, SiA 3085 recorded the higher grain and straw yield. Application of 50 kg N ha -1 markedly improved th...

The growing public awareness of nutrition and health care research substantiates the potential of phytochemicals such as polyphenols and dietary fiber on their health beneficial properties. Hence, there is in need to identify newer sources of neutraceuticals and other natural and nutritional materials with the desirable functional characteristics. Finger millet (Eleusine coracana), one of the m...

Millets are annual grasses and grow well under the marginal conditions of soil fertility and moisture, which provide staple food for millions of people. Millets have strong, deep rooting systems and short life cycles. Breeding research in millets, habitually engages different species, cultivars, and varieties. This makes an immense challenge to maintain the different varieties and their identif...

Endophytic Trichoderma hamatum UoM 13 isolated from pearl millet roots was evaluated for its efficiency to suppress downy mildew disease. Under laboratory conditions, T. hamatum seed treatment significantly enhanced pearl millet seed germination and seedling vigor. T. hamatum seed treatment resulted in systemic and durable immunity against pearl millet downy mildew disease under greenhouse and ...

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) is a staple food and a drought-tolerant cereal well adapted to Sub-Saharan Africa agro-ecosystems. An important diversity of pearl millet landraces has been widely conserved by farmers and therefore could help copping with climate changes and contribute to future food security. Hence, characterizing its genetic diversity and population structure can...

The prominent attributes of foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) including its small genome size, short life cycle, inbreeding nature, and phylogenetic proximity to various biofuel crops have made this crop an excellent model system to investigate various aspects of architectural, evolutionary and physiological significances in Panicoid bioenergy grasses. After release of its whole genome sequen...

Cyanide contents of locally purchased brown finger millet (Eleusine corocana L. Gaertner) and brown speckled kidney bean seeds (Phaseolus vulgaries var. Rose Coco) were determined using raw, germinated and autoclaved samples. The aim was to establish the extent of cyanide content increase resulting from the germination process and the effectiveness of the autoclaving process on the reduction of...

The identification of genes selected during and after plant domestication is an important research topic to enhance knowledge on adaptative evolution. Adaptation to different climates was a key factor in the spread of domesticated crops. We conducted a study to identify genes responsible for these adaptations in pearl millet and developed an association framework to identify genetic variations ...

Crop improvement is a multifaceted micro-evolutionary process, involving changes in breeding approaches, planting configurations and consumption preferences of human beings. Recent research has started to identify the specific genes or genomic regions correlate to improved agronomic traits, however, an apparent blank between the genetic structure of crop elite varieties and their improving hist...

Finger millet landraces viz., TZA-01 and TZM-01 were grown in glasshouses under two moisture regimes (fully irrigated and after drought) to investigate the effects of environmental stress on the growth, SPAD measurement, radiation use efficiency and yield of finger millet (Eleucine coracana). The drought treatment was imposed at 28 DAS beyond which no irrigation was applied to the droughted tre...