Diaga Diouf

1 Introduction Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is the world's fifth most important cereal crop and has a predominant role in food and fodder security for millions of people in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world (Srinivas et al. 2009; Habyarimana et al. 2022). Its adaptation to dry environments and the abundance of genomic resources from recent studies make it an excellent model cereal for investigating the genetic and physiological mechanisms of drought tolerance (Moualeu-Ngangue et al.

The Open Institute of the African BioGenome Project empowers African scientists and institutions with the skill sets, capacity and infrastructure to advance scientific knowledge and innovation and drive economic growth. Africa, a continent of 1.3 billion people, had 326 researchers per million people in 20181,2, whereas the global average for the number of researchers per million people is 1,3681,2.

Introduction Sweet-fleshed watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is an economically important vegetable crop grown and consumed worldwide (FAOSTAT, 2022). The fruit is rich in moisture, sugars, and bioactive compounds (Maoto et al., 2019; Zamuz et al., 2021). Due to centuries of domestication and improvement sweeps, sweet-fleshed watermelon underwent a significant genetic bottleneck and exhibits low genetic diversity (Levi et al., 2001).