ICRISAT Archival Report 2006 - The seedlings of success in the ...

analyses showed a strong genetic structuration between Sorghum botanical races in Mali with wild/weedy
Sorghums genetically closer to the guinea margaritiferum cluster.
F Sagnard in collaboration with CIRAD and University of Bamako, Mali
Milestone C.3.1.5: Diversity of wild and cultivated Pearl Millet in Niger published (FS, JN, BG, IRD, CIRAD,
NARS, 2006)
Diversity analysis of Pearl Millet to identify priorities for conservation programs: In Niger, pearl millet
covers more than 65% of the total cultivated area. Analyzing pearl millet genetic diversity, its origin and its
dynamics is important for in situ and ex situ germplasm conservation and to increase knowledge useful for
breeding programs. Using 25 microsatellite markers, the genetic diversity of 46 wild and 421 cultivated
accessions showed a significantly lower number of alleles and lower gene diversity in cultivated pearl millet
accessions than in wild accessions. A strong differentiation between the cultivated and wild groups in Niger was
observed. Wild accessions in the central region of Niger showed introgressions of cultivated alleles. Accessions
of cultivated pearl millet showed introgressions of wild alleles in the western, central, and eastern parts of Niger.
A journal article has been published in the Theoretical and Applied Genetics (114: 49–58).
F Signard, B Gerard and J Ndejeunga in collaboration
with CIRAD and University of Bamako, Mali
Milestone C.3.1.6: Diversity of sorghum composite collection analyzed and reference set (300 accessions)
established (ICRISAT--CTH/HDU/SS/RKV/DH/CLLG/SC/JB; CIRAD--CB/JFR/MD/LG/RR; CAAS-YL/TW/PL,
2007)
Diversity analysis of the sorghum composite collection was initiated in 2006 using a subset of 3365 sorghum
lines genotyped at 39 single-copy SSR loci. The marker data clearly demonstrate the tremendous range of
genetic diversity available in this sorghum composite collection. We detected an average of 19 alleles per SSR
locus and the vast majority of the alleles detected are rare (>75% of alleles having frequencies 50%
of alleles detected having frequencies