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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
Selection for earlier flowering crop associated with climatic variations in the Sahel
PLoS ONE, Volume 6, No. 5, Article e19563, Year 2011
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Description
Climate changes will have an impact on food production and will require costly adaptive responses. Adapting to a changing environment will be particularly challenging in sub-Saharan Africa where climate change is expected to have a major impact. However, one important phenomenon that is often overlooked and is poorly documented is the ability of agro-systems to rapidly adapt to environmental variations. Such an adaptation could proceed by the adoption of new varieties or by the adaptation of varieties to a changing environment. In this study, we analyzed these two processes in one of the driest agro-ecosystems in Africa, the Sahel. We performed a detailed study in Niger where pearl millet is the main crop and covers 65% of the cultivated area. To assess how the agro-system is responding to recent recurrent drought, we analyzed samples of pearl millet landraces collected in the same villages in 1976 and 2003 throughout the entire cultivated area of Niger. We studied phenological and morphological differences in the 1976 and 2003 collections by comparing them over three cropping seasons in a common garden experiment. We found no major changes in the main cultivated varieties or in their genetic diversity. However, we observed a significant shift in adaptive traits. Compared to the 1976 samples, samples collected in 2003 displayed a shorter lifecycle, and a reduction in plant and spike size. We also found that an early flowering allele at the PHYC locus increased in frequency between 1976 and 2003. The increase exceeded the effect of drift and sampling, suggesting a direct effect of selection for earliness on this gene. We conclude that recurrent drought can lead to selection for earlier flowering in a major Sahelian crop. Surprisingly, these results suggest that diffusion of crop varieties is not the main driver of short term adaptation to climatic variation. © 2011 Vigouroux et al.
Available Materials
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3087796/bin/pone.0019563.s001.doc
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3087796/bin/pone.0019563.s002.doc
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3087796/bin/pone.0019563.s003.doc
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3087796/bin/pone.0019563.s004.doc
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3087796/bin/pone.0019563.s005.doc
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3087796/bin/pone.0019563.s006.doc
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3087796/bin/pone.0019563.s007.doc
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3087796/bin/pone.0019563.s008.pdf
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3087796/bin/pone.0019563.s009.pdf
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3087796/bin/pone.0019563.s010.doc
Authors & Co-Authors
Vigouroux, Yves
France, Montpellier
Ird Centre de Montpellier
France, Marseille
Ird Institut de Recherche Pour le Developpement
Mariac, Cédric
France, Montpellier
Ird Centre de Montpellier
France, Marseille
Ird Institut de Recherche Pour le Developpement
de Mita, Stéphane
France, Montpellier
Ird Centre de Montpellier
Pham, Jean Louis
France, Montpellier
Ird Centre de Montpellier
Gérard, Bruno G.
Niger
International Center of Research for the Semi-arid Tropics
Kapran, Issoufou
Niger, Niamey
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique du Niger
Sagnard, Fabrice
France, Paris
Cirad
Deu, Monique
France, Paris
Cirad
Chantereau, Jacques
France, Paris
Cirad
Ali, Abdou
Niger
Centre Régional Aghrymet
Ndjeunga, Jupiter
Niger
International Center of Research for the Semi-arid Tropics
Luong, V.
France, Montpellier
Ird Centre de Montpellier
Thuillet, Anne Céline
France, Montpellier
Ird Centre de Montpellier
Saïdou, Abdoul Aziz
France, Montpellier
Ird Centre de Montpellier
France, Marseille
Ird Institut de Recherche Pour le Developpement
Niger, Niamey
Universite Abdou Moumouni
Bezançon, Gilles
France, Marseille
Ird Institut de Recherche Pour le Developpement
Statistics
Citations: 89
Authors: 15
Affiliations: 7
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1371/journal.pone.0019563
e-ISSN:
19326203
Research Areas
Environmental
Food Security
Genetics And Genomics
Study Approach
Quantitative
Study Locations
Niger