Journal Article

Fonio millet genome unlocks African orphan crop diversity for agriculture in a changing climate

Bergès, Hélène, Billot, Claire, Wicker, Thomas, Zekraoui, Leila, Pailles, Yveline, Abrouk, Michael, Gapa, Liubov, Scarcelli, Nora, Šimoníková, Denisa, Causse, Sandrine, Vancoppenolle, Sylvie, Arribat, Sandrine, Hřibová, Eva, Leclerc, Christian, Krattinger, Simon G., Cubry, Philippe, Čížková, Jana, Ahmed, Hanin Ibrahim, Couderc, Marie, Bettgenhaeuser, Jan, Wieringa, Jan J., Vigouroux, Yves, Kathiresan, Nagarajan, Gueye, Mathieu, Barnaud, Adeline, Cauet, Stéphane, Doležel, Jaroslav, Kane, Ndjido A.

2020

Overview

Sustainable food production in the context of climate change necessitates diversification of agriculture and a more efficient utilization of plant genetic resources. Fonio millet ( Digitaria exilis ) is an orphan African cereal crop with a great potential for dryland agriculture. Here, we establish high-quality genomic resources to facilitate fonio improvement through molecular breeding. These include a chromosome-scale reference assembly and deep re-sequencing of 183 cultivated and wild Digitaria accessions, enabling insights into genetic diversity, population structure, and domestication. Fonio diversity is shaped by climatic, geographic, and ethnolinguistic factors. Two genes associated with seed size and shattering showed signatures of selection. Most known domestication genes from other cereal models however have not experienced strong selection in fonio, providing direct targets to rapidly improve this crop for agriculture in hot and dry environments. Fonio millet is a fast growing orphan cereal crop with a great potential for dryland agriculture. Here, the authors report chromosome-scale reference genome assembly and population genomic resources to shed light on genetic diversity, population structure and domestication of fonio millet.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 45 / 45/23 / 45/43 / 631/208/726/649 / 631/449/2492 / 631/449/711 / 631/61/447/8 / Africa / Agriculture / Agriculture - methods / Arid zones / Assembly / Cereal crops / Chromosomes / Climate Change / Crop diversification / Crops / Digitaria - classification / Digitaria - genetics / Digitaria exilis / Domestication / Dryland farming / Edible Grain - classification / Edible Grain - genetics / Evolution, Molecular / Food production / Genes / Genetic diversity / Genetic resources / Genetic Variation / Genome, Plant / Genomes / Humanities and Social Sciences / Life Sciences / Millet / Molecular Sequence Annotation / multidisciplinary / Plant resources / Population genetics / Population structure / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Selection, Genetic / Species Specificity / Sustainable food systems / Sustainable production