TY  - JA
AU  - Fanna Maina
AU  - Faye,J.M.
AU  - Kena,A.W.
AU  - Diatta,C.
AU  - Moctar Issiakou Tankari
AU  - Ousseini Abdou Ardaly
AU  - Ousmane Seyni Diakite
AU  - Aissata Mamadou Ibrahim
AU  - Oumarou Abdoulye Moussa
AU  - Abdou Harou
AU  - Rabiou Abdou
AU  - Pascal Sene,J.
AU  - Souleymane Bodian
AU  - Mbery Ndour
AU  - Diarietou Sambakhe
AU  - Bassirou Sine
AU  - Pana Kadanga
AU  - Eyanawa Akata
AU  - Ouédraogo,N.
AU  - Annor,B.
AU  - Tetteh,I.T.
AU  - Muhammad Ahmad Yahaya
AU  - Abdoulaye Diallo
AU  - Kakeeto,R.
AU  - Kisilu,R.
AU  - Clarisse Pulchérie Kondombo
AU  - Tokuma Legesse
AU  - Mbulwe,L.
AU  - Mutaliano,J.
AU  - Mwenda,E.T.
AU  - Gapili Naoura
AU  - Hortense Noëlle Apala Mafouasson
AU  - Opare-Obuobi,K.
AU  - Rekiya Otuchu Abdulmalik
AU  - Runo,S.
AU  - Tilal Sayed Abdelhalim
AU  - Yalaukani,L.
AU  - Masanga,J.
AU  - McLaughlin,C.M.
AU  - Lasky,J.R.
AU  - Harder,A.M.
AU  - Healey,A.L.
AU  - Lovell, J.T.
AU  - Osei-Obeng,P.
AU  - Marla,S.R.
AU  - Felderhoff,T.J.
AU  - Hamidou,F.
AU  - Foncéka,D.
AU  - Chejerla,M.K.V.
AU  - Nebie,B.
AU  - Tamerlane Mark Nas
AU  - Alakonya,A.
AU  - Rathore,A.
AU  - Deshpande,S.
AU  - Gandhi,H.
AU  - Banda,L.
AU  - Rhodes,D.H.
AU  - Cruet-Burgos,C.
AU  - VanGessel,C.J.
AU  - Morris,G.P.
TI  - Delivering trait-enhanced varieties to African smallholders through a pangenomic breeding network
PY  - 2025///
CY  - Nueva York (United States of America)
PB  - bioRxiv
KW  - Varieties
KW  - AGROVOC
KW  - Breeding
KW  - Smallholders
KW  - Crop improvement
KW  - Genomic selection
KW  - Food security
KW  - Africa
N1  - Preprint; Open Access
N2  - Pangenomics has been promoted to accelerate breeding of orphan crops, but smallholder farmers in developing nations have seen little benefit so far. To address this gap, we built a global pangenomic breeding network, integrating African breeding programs, U.S. land grant universities, and international nonprofit research organizations. Here we demonstrate that pangenomics, when integrated with local crop improvement knowledge and global scientific partnerships, can facilitate breeding of drought and pest resilient varieties for smallholders. To breed trait-enhanced sorghum varieties with lgs1-1 resistance to witchweed (Striga hermonthica) for smallholders in Niger, one of the world’s least developed nations, we used population genomics across local and global scales to develop lgs1-1 Striga resistance markers, and deployed them for rapid introgression of resistance into locally-preferred varieties. Genomic characterization, along with controlled experiments in laboratory, pot, field stations, and smallholder farms, confirmed lgs1-1 resistance was introgressed without loss of essential local-preference traits. New pangenomic resources, including global resequencing and graph pangenomes, further accelerated design of broadly-applicable markers. Unlocking the potential of pangenomics for stress-resilience breeding depended on stakeholder input, strong inference, South-led decision support software, and a dense collaborative network. The experience of the network provides a scalable roadmap for collaborative pangenomic breeding of trait-enhanced varieties for the world’s lowest-resourced farmers
UR  - https://hdl.handle.net/10883/36005
DO  - https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.08.07.667917
T2  - bioRxiv
ER  -