Gilles Bezançon

TL;DR: A significantly lower number of alleles and lower gene diversity in cultivated pearl millet accessions than in wild accessions is shown, which contrasts with a previous study using iso-enzyme markers showing similar genetic diversity between cultivated and wild pearl Millet populations.

TL;DR: An association framework to identify genetic variations associated with the phenotype in pearl millet was developed and a significant association between genetic variation in this gene and these characters was confirmed.

TL;DR: No erosion of varietal diversity was noted on a national scale during the period covered and this highlights that farmers’ management can preserve the diversity of millet and sorghum varieties in Niger despite recurrent and severe drought periods and major social changes.

TL;DR: The geographical situation of Niger, where typical western African, central African and eastern Sahelian African sorghum races converge, explained the high observed genetic diversity and was responsible for the interactions among the ethnic, geographical and botanical structure revealed in this study.

TL;DR: It is concluded that recurrent drought can lead to selection for earlier flowering in a major Sahelian crop and Surprisingly, these results suggest that diffusion of crop varieties is not the main driver of short term adaptation to climatic variation.