Rapid Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and high-efficiency regeneration of finger millet (Eleusine coracana) for crop improvement.
Yadav P, Khan I, Mirza B, Yadava P, Chinnusamy V
Crop Improvement
Finger millet is one of the most resilient grains on Earth, thriving where other crops fail, and a breakthrough in editing its genes could soon mean more nutritious, drought-proof varieties reaching smallholder farmers in East Africa and South Asia.
Finger millet is a tough, nutritious grain grown across dry parts of Africa and India, but scientists have struggled to modify its genes because it's notoriously hard to work with in the lab. This team cracked that problem by using a natural soil bacterium to deliver new genetic instructions directly into the plant's growing tip — no messy intermediate step needed. The result is a much faster, more reliable way to breed improved finger millet varieties.
Key Findings
A callus-free, shoot apical meristem-based transformation method was developed, skipping the slow and unpredictable tissue culture step typically required.
Optimal shoot growth was achieved on Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with 3.5 mg/L of plant growth regulator, providing a reproducible protocol.
The system enables efficient, direct shoot organogenesis in finger millet, a crop previously lacking reliable genetic transformation tools.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists developed a fast, reliable method to genetically engineer finger millet — a drought-tolerant grain staple in Africa and India — opening the door to breeding stronger, more nutritious varieties that could feed millions in regions hit hardest by climate change.
Abstract Preview
Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) is a nutritionally important and climate-resilient cereal cultivated in rainfed regions of India and Eastern Africa, yet its genetic improvement has been limited b...
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Finger millet is an annual herbaceous plant. It is a tetraploid and self-pollinating species probably evolved from its wild relative Eleusine africana.