Foliar blast and seedling dehydration stress tolerance in wild Pennisetum monodii germplasm and trait variability in interspecific crosses with Pennisetum glaucum

Wild relatives of pearl millet thrive under harsh arid and semi-arid ecologies due to higher resilience to both biotic and abiotic stresses. With the objective to evaluate wild germplasm for stress tolerance and their utilization for wide hybridization, two set of investigations were conducted. In the first study, forty two accessions of Pennisetum monodii were evaluated for phenotypic traits, foliar blast resistance and tolerance to dehydration stress at seedling stage while in second study quantitative trait variability were evaluated in F2 generation generated from interspecific crosses between P. glaucum x P. monodii. Wide variation for quantitative traits were observed among which high number of tillers and panicles per plant were most distinct. Seven genotypes showed resistant reaction to foliar blast both under natural epiphytotic and artificial disease conditions. Seedling dehydration stress carried out through hydroponics differentiated tolerant and susceptible genotypes in which five genotypes showed tolerant reaction manifested by high shoot length, high root length and shoot weight under stress conditions. Genotypes IP 22019 and IP 21675 showed resistant reaction to foliar blast as well as tolerance to dehydration stress. Data recorded on eight interspecific crosses showed transgressive segregants for number of panicles per plant, tillers per plant and panicle length. Wild accessions with desirable traits and transgressive segregants provide novel trait combinations for efficient use in pearl millet pre-breeding.