Projects

CLIM (2007-2010) - Funded by ANR

Project leader: Y Vigouroux

Scientists involved from our team : Y Vigouroux, AC Thuillet, C Mariac

Sahelian countries have experienced a significant shift to drier climates in the last 40 years, and one of the major cereal crops in these countries is pearl millet. One of the most important adaptations of plants to shorter rainy seasons is flowering time. In the context of a changing climate, earlier flowering in pearl millet may mitigate the effects of climatic change by allowing flowering and seed production in drier environments than those of 40 years ago.The aim of this project is to identify genes responsible for the adaptations of pearl millet to climate variation. Our main hypothesis is that the flowering pathway is relatively conserved across species, which makes knowledge of flowering time gene from model plants relevant to the study of flowering time differences in neglected species. Our methodology uses an original approach combining both genome selection scans and association studies in an understudied crop.

Associated publications:

Mariac C, Ousseini IS, Alio AK, Judgé H, Pham JL, Bezançon G, Ronfort J, Descroix L, Vigouroux Y (2016) Spatial and temporal variation in selection of genes associated with pearl millet varietal quantitative traits in situ. Frontiers in Genetics 7:130

Saïdou AA,Clotault J, Couderc M, Mariac C, Devos KM, Thuillet AC, Amoukou IA, Vigouroux Y (2014) Association mapping, patterns of linkage disequilibrium and selection in the vicinity of the PHYTOCHROME C gene in pearl millet. Theo Appl Genet 127(1):19-32

Saïdou AA, Thuillet AC, Couderc M, Mariac C, Vigouroux Y (2014) Association studies including genotype by environment interactions: prospects and limits. BMC Genetics 15(3)

Vigouroux Y, Barnaud A, Scarcelli N, Thuillet AC (2011) Biodiversity, evolution and adaptation of cultivated crops. CR Biol 334(5-6):450-457

Mariac C, Jehin L, Saïdou AA, Thuillet AC, Couderc M, Sire S, Jugdé H, Adam H, Bezançon G, Pham JL, Vigouroux Y (2011) Genetic basis of pearl millet population adaptation along an environmental gradient investigated by a combination of genome scan and association mapping. Mol Ecol 20:81-91

Saïdou AA, Mariac C, Luong V, Pham JL, Bezançon G, Vigouroux Y (2009) Association studies identify natural variation at PHYC linked to flowering time and morphological variation in pearl millet. Genetics 182:899-910