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Finger millet (Eleusine coracana(L.) Gaertn. subsp.coracana) is the most importantmillet in eastern Africa and perhaps the oldest domesticated cereal grain in Africa.One of the major factors limiting finger millet production is blast disease caused bythe fungusMagnaporthe grisea. Crop wild relatives and landraces present a poten-tial source of novel genes. This study investigated the response of cultivated and wildrelatives of finger millet to an isolate of blast disease from western Kenya. Previousgermplasm collections were purified through two generations of single-seed descentbefore screening alongside improved and farmer-preferred varieties (FPVs) under ascreen house across three seasons. Farmer-preferred varieties were identified throughparticipatory varietal selection (PVS). The plants were inoculated twice during eachgrowth period using hand-spraying method and data on disease incidence recorded atgrain-filling stage. Genotypic data was generated using diversity arrays technology(DArT) sequencing and data analysis done using Genstat 18.2 and TASSEL 5.2.58.We observed high heritability (81%), indicating that the variation observed was pre-dominantly genetic. Wild accessions were generally more resistant to the disease incomparison to the cultivated accessions. Preliminary genome-wide association study(GWAS) using general linear model with principal component analysis led to theidentification of 19 markers associated with blast disease that will be be developedinto assays for genotype quality control and trait introgression. Wild accessions andlandraces of finger millet present a good reservoir for novel genes that can be incor-porated into crop improvement programs.

Climate change is rapidly changing how we live, what we eat and produce, the crops we breed and the target traits. Previously underutilized orphan crops that are climate resilient are receiving much attention from the crops research community, as they are often the only crops left in the field after periods of extreme weather conditions. There are several orphan crops with incredible resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses. Some are nutritious, while others provide good sources of biofuel, medicine and other industrial raw materials. Despite these benefits, orphan crops are still lacking in important genetic and genomic resources that could be used to fast track their improvement and make their production profitable. Progress has been made in generating draft genomes of at least 28 orphan crops over the last decade, thanks to the reducing cost of sequencing. The implementation of a structured breeding program that takes advantage of additional modern crop improvement tools such as genomic selection, speed breeding, genome editing, high throughput phenotyping and breeding digitization would make rapid improvement of these orphan crops possible, but would require coordinated research investment. Other production challenges such as lack of adequate germplasm conservation, poor/non-existent seed systems and agricultural extension services, as well as poor marketing channels will also need to be improved if orphan crops were to be profitable. We review the importance of breeding orphan crops under the increasing effects of climate change, highlight existing gaps that need to be addressed and share some lessons to be learned from major crops. Supplementary Information The online version of this article (10.1007/s00122-020-03755-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Management and distribution of experimental data from prebreeding projects is important to ensure uptake of germplasm into breeding and research programs. Being able to access and share this data in standard formats is essential. The adoption of a common informatics platform for crops that may have limited resources brings economies of scale, allowing common informatics components to be used across multiple species. The close integration of such a platform with commonly used breeding software, visualization, and analysis tools reduces the barrier for entry to researchers and provides a common framework to facilitate collaborations and data sharing. This work presents significant updates to the Germinate platform and highlights its value in distributing prebreeding data for 14 crops as part of the project ‘Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: Collecting, Protecting and Preparing Crop Wild Relatives’ (hereafter Crop Trust Crop Wild Relatives project) led by the Crop Trust (https://www.cwrdiversity.org). The addition of data on these species compliments data already publicly available in Germinate. We present a suite of updated Germinate features using examples from these crop species and their wild relatives. The use of Germinate within the Crop TrustCropWildRelatives project demonstrates the usefulness of the system and the benefits a shared informatics platform provides. These data resources provide a foundation on which breeding and research communities can develop additional online resources for their crops, harness new data as it becomes available, and benefit collectively from future developments of the Germinate platform.