Pearl millet is a staple food crop for millions of people living in the arid and semi-arid tropics. Molecular markers have been used to identify genomic regions linked to traits of interest by conventional QTL mapping and association analysis. Phenotypic recurrent selection is known to increase frequencies of favorable alleles and decrease those unfavorable for the traits under selection. This ...

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R.Br.], a close relative of Panicoideae food crops and bioenergy grasses, offers an ideal system to perform functional genomics studies related to C4 photosynthesis and abiotic stress tolerance. Quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) provides a sensitive platform to conduct such gene expression analyses. However, th...

The capability to utilize different forms of nitrogen (N) by sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), rice (Oryza sativa), maize (Zea mays), and pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) was determined in pot experiments. Seedlings were grown for 21 d without N, or with 500 mg N kg(-1) soil applied as ammonium nitrate, rice bran or a mixture of rice bran and straw. No treatment-dependent changes of root length, surf...

The study was carried out to evaluate the effects of complete replacement of maize with two varieties of guinea corn and two varieties of millets on the growth performance and nutrient retention in broiler chickens. Five isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets for the broiler starter (23.5% CP; 2800 kcal/ME) and finisher (21.5% CP; 2900 kcal/ME) phases were formulated. Diet 1 consisted on a maize b...

A rare case of laminitis was recorded in an adult camel that was kept in confinement without giving any exercise and fed daily with considerable quantity of pearl millet grains (Pennisetum typhoideus) for more than five months.

Millets are extremely important in the African SAT (semi-arid tropics), produced in 18.50 million ha by 28 countries covering 30% of the continent. This is a significant 49% of the global millet area, with a production of 11.36 million tons by 1994. There are nine species which form major sources of energy and protein for about 130 million people in SSA (Sub-Saharan Africa). Among these, only f...

Before selecting genotypes for nutritional quality characters (protein, oil and micronutrients content) and anti-nutritional factor (phytic acid), it is important to know how much selection is likely to affect yield. Using a diverse range of genotypes, relationships between quality traits with yield and yield attributes in pearl millet were investigated. The number of productive tillers, panicl...

Values of dielectric constant (ε’ ), dielectric loss (ε’’), relaxation time (τ), conductivity (σ) of Pearl millet (HHB 62) were measured at room temperature at four different frequencies viz 4.65 GHz, 7.00 GHz, 9.35 GHz and 14.98 GHz in microwave region, using two point method and employing a specially designed dielectric cell for powders. Also, effect of variation of moisture content on dielec...

An extensive in vitro study was conducted to delineate the influence of levels and source of sulfur besides rumen fungi habitat on the degradation of pearl millet stover dry matter and fibrous constituents. The results revealed that degradability of dry matter, organic matter, acid detergent fibre, neutral detergent fibre and cellulose from pearl millet stover was maximized (P<0.05), irrespecti...

The aim of this research was to: (1) develop a reliable extraction procedure and assay to determine antioxidant activity in meat products, and (2) assess the effect of beef finishing system (forage-finished: alfalfa, pearl millet or mixed pastures vs. concentrate-finished) on longissimus muscle antioxidant activity. The effect of extraction method (ethanol concentration and extraction time), pr...