The species has large phenotypic variation and several wild relatives that can intercross with it making it ideal for genetic study. Finger millet derives its name from the morphology of the seedhead. It is an important cereal in Eastern and Southern Africa and India. The crop is highly nutritious, with high levels of the essential amino acid methionine. There is excellent scope for improvement through breeding for resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, improved grain quality and enhanced yield.
Foxtail millet is native to temperate Eurasia and, today, is mainly produced in China.
The crop is realtively drought tolerant and well adapted to arid and semi-arid growing conditions. Due to its small genome size, comparable to that of rice, and its inherent high levels of variation, it is rapidly developing as a model for genetic analyses. Both projects link closely with research programmes at the John Innes Centre that is using molecular markers to map the millet genomes. We will continue to update and add to the pearl millet data in Millet Genes as well as adding finger millet and foxtail millet data. By linking with the other cereals databases using comparative tools, we hope to be able to link all grass genome data.