Inheritance of traits in pearl millet (Pennisetum Glaucum L.)

Abstract

The inheritance of domestication traits distinguishing pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) was assessed from a cross between typical lines of pearl millet. Despite a high level of recombination between the two genomes, the existence of preferential associations between some characters was demonstrated leading in particular to cultivated-like phenotypes. Inheritance of characters involved at the spikelet level based on crosses involving morphologically differentiated cultivated forms and general inheritance trend for millet plant architecture traits. Traits determining spikelet structure showed simple Mendelian inheritance. In all crosses, pigmentation observed for node and leaf auricle, thus, present investigation reveals that nodal and leaf auricle pigmentation in pearl millet is controlled by one allelic gene pair (Varalakshmi et al. (2012).