Institutional Publications

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Genome sequencing efforts in minor millets: Current knowledge and emerging insights
(Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2025) Singh, Roshan Kumar; Panchal, Anurag; Muthamilarasan, Mehanathan; Prasad, Manoj
Small millets (or minor millets) include finger millet (Eleusine coracana), foxtail millet (Setaria italica), proso millet (Panicum miliaceum), barnyard millet (Echinochloa crus-galli), kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum), little millet (Panicum sumatrense), teff (Eragrostis tef), fonio (Digitaria exilis), job’s tears (Coix lacryma-jobi), guinea millet (Brachiaria deflexa), and browntop millet (Urochloa ramosa). These millets are highly nutritious and climate-resilient but marginally cultivated for the production and consumption of particular communities. Though called “poor men’s crops,” minor millets possess the potential to ensure food and nutritional security amid the threat of global climate change. Thus, scope exists to improve the agronomic traits of these minor millets for commercial cultivation; however, lack of genomic resources remains a bottleneck to this advancement. Genome sequencing not only provides an opportunity to decode the genes encoded by the genome, but also provides avenue for the development of genomic resources. The success of genome sequencing for resource development and further implementation of these resources have been proven in other crop plants. Among minor millets, genomes of a few species have been sequenced, including finger millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, barnyard millet, teff, fonio, and job’s tears. However, the genomes of kodo millet, little millet, guinea millet, and browntop millet remains to be sequenced. In this context, the chapter summarizes the outcomes of sequencing efforts and the application of genome sequence information in accelerating genomics studies in minor millets. The chapter also enumerates the status of transcriptome sequencing and its application in dissecting the genes underlying important traits.
The promise of millets in the twenty-first century: emphasis on breeding, nutrition, food security and sustainability
(Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2023) Bandyopadhyay, Tirthankar; Singh, Roshan Kumar; Ramesh, Palakurthi; Maurya, Jyoti; Prasad, Manoj
Global population is expected to cross 11 billion by the turn of the century, which has put immense pressure on the existing agricultural systems worldwide. This is complicated by gradually decreasing productivity and acreage as a result of climate change in addition to ever-increasing input costs of resource hungry staple crops like rice, wheat, and maize. Unfortunately, the most affected by these events are those who have the least resources at their disposal to mitigate the issue, especially in countries of Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. It is therefore pertinent to explore and adopt alternative and/or complementary crops that are easier to cultivate, climate change tolerant, less resource hungry, nutritionally richer for human consumption, and agriculturally sustainable. Millets are perfect cereal crops which meet all of these requirements and can realistically provide much-needed solutions to current global food and nutritional security challenges. In this review, we provide a bird’s eye view of the relevance of millets in global agro-ecosystems in the context of their nutritional and agronomic attributes. Furthermore, we share perspectives on the major areas of crop improvement programs worldwide and discuss major challenges confronting the same. Finally, we discourse on the scope of millets for wider acceptability and highlight major points at the interface of genetic intervention–crop management post-harvest practices worth considering to potentially facilitate robust millet-based nutritional and food security.
Biotechnological approaches to dissect climate-resilient traits in millets and their application in crop improvement
(Elsevier B.V., 2021) Singh, Roshan Kumar; Muthamilarasan, Mehanathan; Prasad, Manoj
'Small millets' is a generic term that includes all the millets except pearl millet and sorghum. These small or minor millets constitute eleven species that are marginally cultivated and consumed worldwide. These small millets possess excellent agronomic-, climate-resilient, and nutritional traits, although they lack popularity. Small millets withstand a broad spectrum of environmental stresses and possess better water-use and nitrogen-use efficiencies. Of note, small millets are five- to seven-fold nutritionally rich in terms of protein, bioactive compounds, micro- and macro-nutrients as compared to major cereals. Irrespective of these merits, small millets have received little research attention compared to major millets and cereals. However, the knowledge generated from such studies is significant for the improvement of millets per se and for translating the information to improve major cereals through breeding and transgene-based approaches. Given this, the review enumerates the efforts invested in dissecting the climate-resilient traits in small millets and provides a roadmap for deploying the information in crop improvement of millets as well as cereals in the scenario of climate change.

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