PROGRESS AND PROBLEMS OF PEARL MILLET GEWM MINTEM##CE. SMlC ICRISAT LIBRARY. l CRt SAT. NATlONAL SEHINAR'ON GENETICS OF PENNfSETUMS.

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1 NATlONAL SEHINAR'ON GENETICS OF PENNfSETUMS Ludhlanr March 27-29, 1978 SMlC ICRISAT LIBRARY PROGRESS AND PROBLEMS OF PEARL MILLET GEWM MINTEM##CE 8, APPA RM) l CRt SAT Intrrnatlorlrl Creps fbswrch Institute for the Sml-Arld Tropics Hydera~~';gh!~~; India

2 CONTENTS The status of world collectign of Pearl millet 1 prior to formation of ICRISAT: Genetic materi~l denated to ICRISAT 2 Landraces received from Indi: Landraces collected by ICRISAT Objectives of maintenance at ICRISAT 5 Problems of maintenance 8 Cluster bagging method to maintain ths 8 variability within individual accessions. Planting Baggin? Harvesting Self i ng Germpl asm pools 10 Ac know1 edgemen ts 11 References 11

3 PROGRESS AND PROBLEMS OF PEARL MILLET GERMPLASM MAINTENANCE S. Appa Rao* 1. The status of world collection of Pearl millet prior to formation of ICRISAT: Realizing the importance of conserving the genetic resources of Pearl millet P~nnisctun amehicanum (L.) Leeks (formerly P. typko.it/u (Burm. ) Stapf and Hubb. ) the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, in co-opcration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Rescarch, the State Departments of Agriculture and the Rockcfel lsr Foundation undertook the systematic collection of Pearl millet in India (Rachie, 1963). The project was initiated on October 5, 1959 and largely completed except for some follow-up collecting by May 31, 1962 and collected 754 landrace accessions from India. Prior to, during and following the collecting of Indian materi?is, 1360 genetic stocks of Pearl millet were exchanged with other breeders in India and?broad. Most cf the Introduced lines w~re breedinq matorial, either inbreds or genetic stocks. Contributors th the total collection included the United Stztes Department of Agricul turf, the Food and Agriculture Orqaniz3tion of the United Nations, and individual breeders in the USA, Africa, Ssuth America, Eur~pe and Asia (Rachie, 1966). Out of 2114 genetic stocks assembled, ines were evaluated, classi ficd and catalogued by Murty et be. (1967) and a supplement for grain characters was pub- lished in 1970 (Murty et &., 1970). lotanist (Genetic Resources), Cerea! Germplasm, ICRISAT, Hyderabad

4 2, Genetic material donated to ICRISAT: Th2 first task of ICSlSAT nas tr assmble Par1 millet gemplasm frrln a ll possibl.. sources. Brccd~rs fr~m India and ;brn?' extended their co-rperation by crlntributing whatever qermplasm thcv had. ICRISAT received in , inc?mplste sets 7f the IP c-11~~tion from Ludhiana, New Del hi, Rajendranagar, Jamnagar, and Vizianaqaram (India), Bangkok (Thai land) and ALAD (Lcbanon). Duplicate and triplicate sets of the IP lines from th? above sources were planted side by side to identify those I? lines which still agreed with the catalogue and to eliminate duplicatzs and triplicates. Out of 29 descriptors used by Murty ex at. (1967) eleven characters were usea to identify the "original" IP lines. The descriptors used are: 1. 3ays t? 502 flwerinq 7. Ear length 2. Plant height 8. Ear girth 3. Nn. ~f tillers 9. Slume colour 4. Node cnlour 10. Glumf covering 5. Bristlz cclqur 11. Soed mlour 6. Bristle length Out of 3788 lines (duplicates and triplicates) checked, 1075 lines agreed with the catalogue (Table 1 ). A number of the remaining 1 ines were retained for breeding purposes.

5 Tr le 1: Nunbrr of IP lines catalogued by Murty 6d de, nd the number of lines thet agreed with the catalogue, Country No. of lina clsssified No. of lines agrrsing with the catalogue Conga Ghana Kenya Mali Nigeria N. Rhodesia Nyaealand Senegal S. Rhodesia Sudan S. Africa Tnngany ika Uganda Australia Pakistan U.S.A. Unknown Exotics Andhrn Pradesh Guj srat Ja~zu & Kashmir Madhya Pradesh Madras Maharashtra Mysore Orissa Punj ab Rajas than Uttar Pradesh Sources Unknown

6 3. Landraces received from India: Millet breeders from diffcrznt states qf India have b?~n c~llectiqq Isndraces and sent th2 seed t3 ICRISAT. G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Ttchnology sent us 110 landracac nf Prarl millet c ~llected fr~m Utter Pradesh. Mr. Mahldhik, Millct Breeder cqllected 142 landraccs from H>dhy* Pradesh which we rectived. Millet Research Statims st Vizianagaram, and Guntur of the Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University sent us mwe than thousand accessions which are mostly breeding materials. 4. Landraces collected by ICRISAT: With a view to collect landraces, intermediate forms and wild species of Pennis- capable of hybridizing with Pearl millet, a collection expedition in the Sahel was organised in 1975 by ORSTOM, supported by FA0 and UNEP in which ICRISAT also participated and coll~ ted 1352 samples. The : cxpeditim t3 the Eastern Ghats of India enabled us to collect 98 samples ~f cultiv3ted millet and one wild species identified as Pennidetum pedicd%fun Trin*. The expedition tr~ Rajasthan resulted in the collection of 366 landrace accessions and ore wild species identified as Pennisetum divaum (Fnrssk. ex he1.) ~enr? During 1977 the Plant Quarantine Unit of the Government?f India (601) released 445 accessions of landrace material from Afric~ ' Identified by Dr. L.J.G. van der Maesen.

7 (Niger, 194: Nigeria, 144; Ethi?pia, 7; Sdnegal, 3;) t3gcther with 3 sarq~lcs frm USSR, 7 frm USrni and nne frm Australia. Thcse lines 3re currently bdina grqwn in the Psst Entry Quarantine Isolstim 'rc? (PFQIA) at ICRISt\T underg~inq ragul~r ins~ccti~n by GO1 steff. Lr7rt frsm t h ~ i, ICRISAT has rec~ived 2 t1t3l?f 5796 acccssi~ns cqmpris- ing of the various IP collscti~n, i ~ h r lines ~ 1 frm Jamnapor, +?way mildew resistant lines from Dr. Saff.xtlla, mzlc sterialc lines 3n3 landrnces from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradash, Eastarn Ghsts an3 Rajasthan (Table 2). WE have 11 wild species and 3 pnssible inter- specific hybrids (Teble 3). 5. Objectives of maintenance at ICRIMT: There are three principal objectives?f germplasm maintenance and the method 3f maintenance varies with the crbjectivc. To obt3in largely cr~ss-pollinated seed from the first grw-7ut in sufficient quantity ti-th far lqng term st7raqc and t? prwidc for sub-samples for sever~l evlluation plsntinqs. In the cls~ of accessions which have been previnusly selfsd thesd will be maintlined by selfing. To obtain a bulk of S1 seed for each accession to supply to breeders and other interested scientists. To make germplasm pools. This will ultimately reducr? the nurnhcr of items to be handled, and concentrate the available Genes f?r a particular cultfvar or race.

8 Table 2: Pearl millet accessions maintained at ICRISAT S.No. Descripticn No. of entries Exctic collection (West and Enst Africn includes lines, varieties and composite populntions) Indian Pen~~&&?Itm (I.P.) collection (IP 1 to IP 3118) collection obtained from Lebanon, Bangkok, Rajendranagar, Jamnagar and Ludhiann: (duplicate entries ignored for totaling) Landraces from Eastern Ghats of Orissa and Andhro Pradesh Landraces from Rajasthan Landraces selected from Economics samples Landraces from Madhya Pradesh Locai cultivars from Uttar Pradesh Promising lines from Maharashtra (including local collection). Accessions from Vizianngaram Accessions from Lam, Guntur. Dovny mildew resistant material from Dr. Safeeulla Disease resistant inbreds (Dr. N.V. IARI, New Delhi) Sundernm, Disease resistant lines (downy mildew, ergot, smut) from CNRA, Senegal. Jamnagar (Gujarat, India inbred lines and selections smong then) Miscellaneous (inbred lines) Male sterile lines: i. Al - A2 - and A3 eources ii. Dovny mildew 'resistant' B lines from Dr. G.W. Burton wild species of PenniaeAm Interspecific crosses (probable)

9 - 7 - Table 3: Distribution of wild PenrtidetWn bpecie6 maintained at ICRISAT P. 0hi&U&2 2 n, 4 n, Western Himalaya, Concan, Bihar, West wards to Arabia, Iraq, North America, P, U~~%AU 2 n, 4 n, Nileland$ in Eritria and in Arabia. P. tnablukuin Nileland to East Arabia, introduced into India. P. luylpcui Ethiopia P, polghchyon Tropics of the old world 7- m Tropical Africa, but nov introduced into many other tropical countries, P. squama Tropical Africa P, d.opecwtode6 Burma, through Meghalya, Polynesia, P, l&au Tropical America and Africa. P. p & m hjasthan, Eastern Ghats 6 MBdhya Pradesh, P, diuhidum Raj as than, Hybrid Nqier X P, bqundwh P, typhohfu X P, p wrpw (Hybrid Napier)

10 6. Problems of maintenance: Fqr objectives I and eventually 111, since Pearl millet is prnto- vvr711c qqd crpss-pollinatdtherc i: n prablcm in.~?int~ininn t h c911,ct~d ~,r lagr,gat, div~rsify ritnin ~ ~ accmion c h wh~r s&,-a1 tcundr-ds hv, ',3 I, qrnwn sin11 t3neousl y. R,czuse of allogamly it is prone to bc contsminatzd 3nd modified (Harlan, 1973) Selfing leads to inbreeding depression (Pokhriyal c.t d. 1966) and ths appearance of new phenotypes. Hand sibbinq even if it includes the bulking of pollen is laborius and should involve large numbers of plants for each accession. Additionally, while opsning the bag on the femalc head, free pollen may also enter with the selected pollen causing contamination. 6.1 WE^ bagging method to maintain the variability wtthin Indlvfdual accessions: To overcome these problems, wc have developed a method which is a compromise between the need to produce sced from a larqt: number of accessions, while yet allowing some measure of crqsspollination within cach accession Peanting: Planting is done in clusters as shown in Fia.1. Each cluster is spread 45 cm along and 25 an across the ridy with onc clustcr per meter on the ridge. Each cluster cm- sists qf 10 equally spaced plants around the perimeter. Ke- cent experience has shown that it is better to plant 6 hills

11 in a cluster, hut leave tw? plants per hill which gives Letter contml ovcr til!crin?. ar? used for tiach accession.?rc yrqwn far each accession. Four ridgss af 5 m length Thus mare than 200 plapts 6.1.2" Bugging: Atthetimeofflowarin~,nneaarfromeachplant in the cluster is enclosed in 3 single large krjft paper La:. Bags of 80x25~10 cn an3 60x25~10 cm are used f:r the Africcn types which have long ears, and 40x20~8 un for other types with smaller heads. The stems in a cluster are ticd with a strin? near the base of the bag to give stability, and the bags are shaken once a day to crejte pollen movement within the bag. From an ear pollen is shed 3ver a periqd of fi tq 6 days (Burton and Powell, 1968) making cross-pollination possible Ha~tuaLb~g: An equal quantity of sesd from each plant in the plgt should be bulked tc reconstitute the accession. This method has Seen put to field test at ICRISAT qn about 1200 accassions planted in November 1977 and found to have no majsr difficulties in practice. Seed set has been better under the large bags as compared to selfing, indicating that cross fertilization is occurring. Experiments are planned to determine the amount of cross-poll inatim.

12 To ndt t52 demand frm '>rdrders >nd lthcr intcrestcd scldntists bulk S1 sex is supplie". Fnr the tillers not us2d in lllstc:r k:-~ng rlnc s?r fw,m c:ch hill is selfel, and atleast 5(,:r -r sclfcd per acccssirn. An ~qu?l quantity nf sxd frm a1 I the selfx! heads is bulksd to cmstitute the S1 bulk seed. These S1 seeds retainin3 a11 genes in the plants selfed with recessive genas separsted from their dominant alleles will be thtl most useful form of thd rcqtype for the plant hrcc7dcr (Burton, 1976) Germplasm pools: To minimise gzne erosion many scientists advxate constitutin: of gennplasm pools, althnugh loss of qenes was reported while advmcing germpl asm pools of Pearl mil let (Burton, 1976). nevcrthelcss qermnlasm pmls have their own siqnificance as a practical solutim. Hencc, we are planning ts constitute [;crmplasm pools. After eva1u;l- tion, accessions of similar morph3logy and frm the same qeogrlphic rccicn which represent samples of the same population will be mixed in equal quantity, to form 3ermplasm pmls for a particular rscl? qr cul tivar group. For instance Maiwa and Gem races fram West Afr$c~, Jakhranj from Rajasthan, Pittaganti frm Andhra Pradesh, the photn- sensitive group from Esstern Ghats etc. The best way to minimize "ens loss and oo3ulatfon shift in a germplasm pool will bc to advance th,> population with equal numbers of sefds frm each plant in the ~ o r l as suggestel by (Burton (1976).

13 Acknowl edgemsnts: sac (lr. K.E. I am grateful to Mr. D.J. Andrews, Dr. L.J.6. van 3 ~!( r,- cluster bagging technique. Prasada RRO for their sugwsticns whil~ di?vclnr~in t Burton, G.W., (1976). Gene loss in Pearl millet gennplasm prinls. Chop Science 16: Burton, G.W., and Powell, P.J.B., (1968). Pearl millet breeding and Cfl~netfcs. Advanced in Aphcnomy 20: Harlan, J.R., (1973). Genetic resources of sme major ficld crops in Africa. Survey qf crop genetic resources in their centres 3f diversity. First report Frankel, O.H. ed. FAO, IBP. Murty, B.R., Upadhyay, M.K., and Manchanda, P.L., (1967). Classification and cataloquing of a w~rld cqllection cf genetic stocks :~f P&nnidetum. Indian I. Gcnet., 27 (Spl.No. ): Mu-ty, B.R., Upadhyay, M.K., and Manchanda, P.L., (1970). Cataloquing and classifyinq genetic stocks of Pennibuhn for grain characteristics. Final Technical Report. PL480 ~ r ~ j ea7-gr-71 c t FG-IN-143-IARI, New Dclhi: np ant Pokhriy31, S.C., Rao, S.B.P., Manqath, K.S.and Rajpur, D.D., (1966). Effect of inbreedinq on yield and qther characters in Pearl millet. Indian J. GeneX., 26: Rachie, K.O., (1x3). The systematic collection ef Sor$um, Millets and Maize in India. The Rockefeller Foundati3n, New Del hi (Mimeographed). Rachie, K.O., Genetic diversity in Sorghum and Millet Improvement. 1ndiu.n J. Genet., 26A:

14 CLUSTER BAGGING METHOD OF MILLET GERMPLASM MAINTENANCE