Genomic Designing for Biotic Stress Resistance in Pearl Millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.]

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is a major staple crop of 90 million poor people and is grown on 27 million ha area in arid and semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa. It is a mutipurpose crop with excellent nutritional and medicinal values. It is a rich source of energy and micronutrients like iron, zinc and vitamins and gluten free with low glycemic index. Pearl millet is affected by different biotic stresses such as fungal, bacterial and viral diseases as well as attack by major insects like shoot fly, stem borer, grasshopper, termite, white grub, grey weevil, cut worm etc. like other cereals resulting in yield losses to the tune of 10–60%. Thus, it is necessary to understand genetics of host plant resistance, pathogen variability and its mechanism of action using advanced tools. Further, there is a need to develop new insect and disease resistant genotypes using genomic tools there by reducing cost of cultivation, environmental pollution and reducing yield losses. There has been a lot of progress in pearl millet genetic improvement using genetic resource conservation and evaluation along with conventional and modern approaches to overcome biotic and abiotic stresses which helped in achieving high level of productivity, quality and profitability. Recently reported genome sequence information and several genomic studies signify the need to further exploit its beneficial attributes. Hence, use of modern genomic tools and genomic designing approaches including, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, genome editing etc. is very much desired for gene identification, trait mapping to understand several complicated gene pathways and their interactions in order to better identify different genes governing biotic stresses.