Investigating Genes Linked to Adaptations in Pearl Millet

Uncovering genomic regions involved in adaption is a major goal in evolutionary biology. The aim of this study was to identify genes linked to climate adaptations in wild pearl millet populations. First, we considered two climatic gradients as biological replicates and performed RNA sequencing of 4 populations at the extreme of both gradients. Among 11,155 contigs of pearl millet reference transcriptome, 540 exhibited selection signals as evidenced by at least one of the four methods used. We then used 11 additional populations distributed along the two gradients to further assessed signature of selection . Four contigs displayed consistent signatures across datasets and methods, two of which were linked to abiotic and biotic stress responses. We then performed association studies on eleven phenotypic traits on those 11 populations. We pinpoint two SNPs linked of the Myosin XI genes as associated with flower number variations. This gene was also a target of selection. Our approach lead to identifying a subset of genes linked to potential climatic adaptations in a non model plant.