Record Details

Mechanisms of adaptation to climate variability in West African pearl millet landraces – a preliminary

OAR@ICRISAT

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/2624/
 
Title Mechanisms of adaptation to climate variability in West African pearl millet landraces – a preliminary
 
Creator Haussmann, B I G
Boureima, S S
Kassari, I A
Moumouni, K H
Boubacar, A
 
Subject Millets
 
Description Landraces are generally expected to possess specific
mechanisms of adaptation to their growing environments.
In West and Central Africa (WCA), growing conditions
of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) are characterized,
among other hazards, by highly variable beginnings and
endings of the rainy season, and unpredictable drought
stress at any time during the growing season. Adaptation
to such unpredictable variable environment can be due to
individual and/or populational buffering (Allard and
Bradshaw 1964), two mechanisms initially defined by
Lerner (1954) as developmental and genetic
homeostasis. Individual buffering may be favored by
phenotypic plasticity. Photoperiod-sensitive flowering is
an example of phenotypic plasticity that can enhance
adaptation to variable planting dates followed due to a
scattered beginning of the rainy season in a region, as
typical for WCA. It enhances simultaneous flowering of
the cultivar in the target region, independent of the
individual date of planting in different fields. This has
particular advantages in terms of reducing bird damage
and insect pressure; prolonging vegetative development
in case of early planting but accelerating development in
case of late planting; therefore fitting plant development
to available rainfall patterns and resulting potentially in
increased yielding stability. Populational buffering can
be promoted by genetic heterogeneity in plant stand as
different genotypes present in the population are
specifically adapted to different environmental
conditions (Bradshaw 1965). An example is intra-varietal
variation for flowering time, which would assure that in
case of a dry spell, not all plants in the field will be
affected by drought in their most sensitive flowering
stage.
 
Date 2007
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Rights —
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/2624/1/Mechanisms_of_adaptation.pdf
Haussmann, B I G and Boureima, S S and Kassari, I A and Moumouni, K H and Boubacar, A (2007) Mechanisms of adaptation to climate variability in West African pearl millet landraces – a preliminary. Journal of SAT Agricultural Research, 3 (1). pp. 1-3.