Jacques Chantereau

RFLP diversity in cultivated sorghum in relation to racial differentiation

Careful assessment of the comparative diversity for molecular markers and for potentially-useful morpho-agronomic traits is paramount to the analysis of a genome through the mapping of favorable genes. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor ssp.bicolor) varieties are traditionally classified into five races on the basis of morphological traits, especially panicle and grain traits. Isozyme diversity has provided a new insight into genetic diversity, and showed a marked geographic structure. We performed RFLP analysis on 94 varieties, chosen to represent the main cross combinations (race × geographic origin), using 35 maize probes that detect polymorphism with at least one of the two restriction enzymesHindIII andXbaI. A total of 50 polymorphic probe-enzyme combinations yielded 158 polymorphic bands. The bicolor race appeared highly variable and included many rare markers. Among the other races multivariate analysis of the data differentiated six clusters corresponding, by decreasing magnitude of divergence, to: the margaritiferum types (a sub-race of race guinea); the guinea forms from western Africa; race caudatum; race durra; race kafir; and the guinea forms from southern Africa.The apparent geographic differentiation was related to the contrasting distribution of these races and to a higher similarity between races localized in southern Africa. The data agree with the current hypotheses on sorghum domestication but reveal associations between neutral markers and traits probably highly subjected to human selection. Whether such associations will be observed with other useful traits, and to what extent they are maintained by genetic linkage, is worth exploring.

Selection for Earlier Flowering Crop Associated with Climatic Variations in the Sahel

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.

RFLP mapping of QTLs for photoperiod response in tropical sorghum

Genetic control of flowering time in sorghum was investigated using a recombinant inbred lines population derived from a cross between IS 2807, a slightly photoperiod sensitive tropical caudatum landrace, and IS 7680,a highly photoperiod sensitive tropical guinea landrace. Progenies were sown with their parents at six different dates between 1995 and 1997 in Burkina Faso. Direct field measures and synthetic measures derived from the implementation of a model were used to characterize the photoperiod response. Emphasis was put to identify the most relevant traits to account for Basic Vegetative Phase (BVP) and photoperiod sensitivity sensus stricto. One QTL was detected on Linkage Group (LG) F for the traits related to BVP. Two QTLs were detected on LGs C and H for the traits related to the photoperiod sensitivity sensus stricto. This gives credit to at least partially independent genetic determinisms for those two components of photoperiod response. Evidences for possible orthology of the QTLs detected here with other QTLs and major genes involved in flowering time of sorghum and rice are discussed.

Effects of quantitative and qualitative principal component score strategies on the structure of coffee, rubber tree, rice and sorghum core collections

La strategie PCSS (Principal Component Score Strategy) est une methode de selection, basee sur des analyses multivariees, proposee pour constituer des core collection a partir de collections importantes de ressources genetiques. La methode decrite sur des donnees quantitatives est adaptee ici a des donnees qualitatives de type moleculaire. Ces deux methodes ont ete testees pour leurs impacts sur la structure de quatre plantes tropicales: cafeier; hevea, riz et sorgho. Les resultats montrent, dans tous les cas, que laugmentation des contributions relatives cumulees (CRC) sont tres rapides mais different dune espece a lautre. Dix pour cent de la collection totale permet dobtenir de 22 a 58 % de CRC. Comme prevu, la variabilite des caracteres quantitatifs dans les echantillons, est peu ou pas modifiee lorsque la selection est qualitative mais elle lest fortement par une selection quantitative. La selection qualitative apparait comme la plus efficace pour conserver les alleves rares et augmenter la diversite globale avec des effets limites au niveau quantitatif. Lutilisation despeces tres differentes a permis de comparer les impacts respectifs des deux methodes et de mettre en lumiere les avantages dune selection combinee sur les deux types dapproches.