RESEARCHERS WITH THE INSTITUTE OF PLANT BREEDING, GENETICS
AND GENOMICS ISOLATE FIRST GENE IN AN OFTEN-IGNORED GRAIN
While pearl millet is a major food staple in some of the
fastest growing regions on Earth, relatively little is known about the
drought-hardy grain.
Recently, plant geneticists at the University of Georgia
successfully isolated the gene that creates dwarfed varieties of pearl millet.
It is the first time a gene controlling an important agronomic trait has been
isolated in the pearl millet genome. Their work appeared in the March edition
of the journal G3: Genes, Genomics, Genetics.