A paper just out on the domestication of pearl millet gives me the chance to acknowledge the terrific amount of work on domestication of West African crops going on in Yves Vigouroux‘s lab.
- Yam: Molecular basis of African yam domestication: analyses of selection point to root development, starch biosynthesis, and photosynthesis related genes.
- African rice: The Rise and Fall of African Rice Cultivation Revealed by Analysis of 246 New Genomes. More here.
- Pearl millet: A western Sahara centre of domestication inferred from pearl millet genomes.
- Fonio: High selfing rate inferred for white fonio [Digitaria exilis (Kippist.) Stapf] reproductive system opens up opportunities for breeding programs.
Excellent news. One supposes now with the work by Barnaud et al. 2017 that we can now look forward to an enhanced fonio folio.
Finally!
Thanks Luigi. Yes indeed, Yves and colleagues are doing great work. After working with them on pearl millet domestication we from ICRISAT are working with them on domestication of chickpea though not in Western Africa but in Fertile Crescent !