Exploration of millet models for developing nutrient rich graminaceous crops

Published Date

January 2016, Vol.242:89–97, doi:10.1016/j.plantsci.2015.08.023

From genomics to breeding

Title 

Exploration of millet models for developing nutrient rich graminaceous crops

• Author 

• Mehanathan Muthamilarasan ^a,1,
• Annvi Dhaka ^a,1,
• Rattan Yadav ^b,
• Manoj Prasad ^a,,

• aNational Institute of Plant Genome Research, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi 110067, India
• bInstitute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Plas Goggerdan, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3EB, United Kingdom

Received 22 April 2015. Revised 28 August 2015. Accepted 28 August 2015. Available online 29 August 2015.

Highlights

• •
  Millets are nutritionally superior to other graminaceous crops.
• •
  Use of ‘omic’ techniques to decipher nutritional traits of millets is discussed.
• •
  Approaches to introgress these traits in other major cereals are shown.

Abstract

Protein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies contribute to high mortality among considerable proportion of the current 7.2 billion global populations, especially children. Although poverty and diets poor in nutrition are prime reasons for prevalence of malnutrition, nutritionally dense crops offer an inexpensive and sustainable solution to the problem of malnutrition. Remarkably, millets are nutritionally superior to major non-millet cereals. They especially are rich in dietary fibers, antioxidants, phytochemicals and polyphenols, which contribute broad-spectrum positive impacts to human health. However, millets have received lesser research attention universally, and considering this, the present review was planned to summarize the reports available on nutrition profile of millets and non-millet cereals to provide a comparative insight on importance of millets. It also emphasizes the need for research on deciphering nutritional traits present in millets and to develop strategies for introgressing these traits into other conventional staple crops using germplasm and ‘omics’ technologies. In some millet species, excellent ‘omics’ and germplasm panels have started to get available which can act as a starting point for understanding as well as of introgressing healthful traits across millets and non-millet cereals.

Keywords

• Millets
• Nutrition
• Gramineae
• Food security
• Genomics

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  Corresponding author. Fax: +91 11 26741658.

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