Advanced Biotechnological Tools for Millet Improvement

Biotechnological tools, such as plant tissue culture, molecular markers, genetic engineering, Next-generation sequencing (NGS), and precision editing, play an important role in millet research and crop improvement. These methods help regulate genes and genomic regions by enhancing traits directly through overexpression. Millets are diverse and nutritionally rich cereal grains and have ample proteins, vitamins, macronutrients, micronutrients, and fibers. Tools such as OMICS and NGS help understand the gene regulatory networks and molecular mechanisms of several varieties of millets, such as sorghum, finger, pearl, and foxtail. Application of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) is being used to develop abiotic and biotic stress-tolerant characteristics in different crops. Through the optimization of stable plant transformation and highly precise gene editing in foxtail millet, there is potential to revolutionize the development of climate-resilient crops. The successful use of isozymes, DNA markers, and tissue culture techniques are some instruments in screening millet genotypes.