Breeding Barnyard Millet for Abiotic Stress Tolerance

Barnyard millet (Echinochloa species) is a versatile crop with a rich nutritional profile known for its innate ability to tolerate most abiotic stresses, including drought and high temperatures. Although potential yield losses are inevitable, further improvement is needed to make them more resilient to unprecedented effects of climate change and associated environmental stresses. Hence, strenuous efforts are required to characterize the germplasm resources and identify the specific traits, QTLs, genes and pathways associated with stress tolerance. In addition, understanding the mechanism underlying stress response in Echinochloa species may not only be useful to develop superior cultivars but also serve as the reservoir of unique alleles which assist in improving tolerance in major cereal crops. The release of genome and transcriptome sequence of both wild and cultivated barnyard millets will undoubtedly facilitate the dissection of genetic architecture behind stress tolerance. However, a major downside is the lack of large-scale genomic resources, research efforts and funding compared to other major millets like sorghum, pearl millet, foxtail millet and finger millet. Thus, with available knowledge on genetic and genomic resources in other major millets and cereals, attempts should be made to improve the stress tolerance of barnyard millet.