Journal of Agronomy and Field Innovations

Background: Pearl millet is categorized as a C4 crop with excellent drought resistance ability and belongs to the cereal crops typically grown in arid and semi-arid areas. Although there is available knowledge regarding transcription factors (TF) as essential regulators of networks of genes involved in stress response, there is a deficiency of information about the complete genomic summary of drought-associated TFs in pearl millet.
Objective: The goal of the presented research is to pinpoint, classify, and describe drought sensitive TF families within the pearl millet genome, as well as to select candidate genes for molecular breeding.
Methods: Data from the Pearl millet genome database was used to obtain genome and proteome data. The identification of TF sequences was made by performing a search of HMM profiles combined with the use of BLASTP, whereas domain verification has been conducted via Pfam, SMART and InterProScan. Phylogenetic relationships as well as gene structure, chromosome distribution, duplication events, cis-regulatory elements, and Gene Ontology/KEGG annotation were analyzed using MEGA, TBtools, and MEME Suite.
Results: The research discovered 612 genes that encode transcription factors and account for seven major groups (MYB, NAC, WRKY, bZIP, DREB / AP2-ERF, bHLH, and HD-Zip) distributed unevenly on the seven pearl millet chromosomes. Segment duplications were recorded more frequently than tandem duplications. A promoter analysis showed the presence of the ABRE, MYCR, and DRE cis-elements in great quantities. Differential expression analysis revealed 84 transcription factors induced by drought, most of which belong to the NAC and DREB groups. PgNAC29 and PgDREB2A are putative hub genes among them. 
Conclusion: Thus, genome-wide data on drought-sensitive transcription factors in pearl millet were presented, contributing to the selection of candidates for functional validation and marker-assisted breeding of climate-resistant cultivars.