Genomic insights into the indigenous African cereal tef

Tef (Eragrostis tef) is an indigenous African cereal that is gaining global attention as a gluten-free ‘superfood’ with high protein, mineral and fibre contents.

However, tef yields are limited by lodging and by losses during harvest owing to its small grain size (150 times lighter than wheat).

Breeders must also consider a strong cultural preference for white-grained over brown-grained varieties.

Tef is relatively understudied with limited ‘omics’ resources.

Thus, a new study re-sequenced 220 tef accessions from an Ethiopian diversity collection and performed multi-locational phenotyping for 25 agronomic and grain traits.

Grain metabolome profiling revealed differential accumulation of fatty acids and flavonoids between white and brown grains.

k-mer and SNP-based genome-wide association uncovered important marker-trait associations, including a significant 70 kb peak for panicle morphology containing the tef orthologue of rice qSH1—a transcription factor regulating inflorescence morphology in cereals.

The study also observed a previously unknown relationship between grain size, colour and fatty acids.

These traits are highly associated with retrotransposon insertions in homoeologues of TRANSPARENT TESTA 2, a known regulator of grain colour.

The study provides valuable resources for tef research and breeding, facilitating the development of improved cultivars with desirable agronomic and nutritional properties.

Citation

Jones, M.R.W., Kebede, W., Teshome, A., Girija, A., Teshome, A., Girma, D., Brown, J.K.M., Quiroz-Chavez, J., Jones, C.S., Wulff, B.B.H., Assefa, K., Tadele, Z., Mur, L.A.J., Chanyalew, S., Uauy, C. and Shorinola, O. 2025. Population genomics uncovers loci for trait improvement in the indigenous African cereal tef (Eragrostis tef). Communications Biology 8: 807.

Photo: Cultivating teff in Doyogena District, Ethiopia (ILRI/Georgina Smith)

Curated by Tezira Lore, Communication Officer, ILRI