Harnessing genetic diversity for drought tolerance and forage yield improvement in pearl millet germplasms through a prebreeding framework.

ABSTRACT: Pearl millet, recognized for its resilience to climate challenges, thrives in drought-prone and poor soil quality areas. This study aims to evaluate the impact of drought stress on six agronomic traits in 188 pearl millet accessions and identify stable and drought-tolerant accessions that can be developed into forage parental lines. Field experiments conducted in summer 2023 and 2024 under irrigated (control) and rainfed (stress) treatments at Hays, Kansas, revealed significant differences among the accessions, treatments, and year based on an aligned rank transform test for all the traits evaluated. The rank summation index selected 30 drought-tolerant germplasms per maturity group from the whole collection. Principal component analysis based on GBS SNP data indicated a higher level of ge

SUBMITTER: Parray SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12618506 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature