Development of Core Subset of Finger Millet Germplasm Using Geographical Origin and Data on 14 Quantitative Traits

Abstract

Finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] is an important cereal food crop in Africa and South Asia. It is a hardy crop that can be grown in very diverse environments from almost at sea level to about 2400 m.a.s.l. Finger millet has an excellent food value as its seeds contain protein ranging from 7 to 14% and are particularly rich in methionine amino acid, iron, and calcium. Despite all these merits, this crop has been neglected from the main stream of crop improvement research. One of the means to boost its production and productivity is to enhance utilization of finger millet germplasm to breed superior varieties. Keeping this objective in view, a core subset of finger millet germplasm (622 accessions) based on origin and data on 14 quantitative traits was developed from the entire global collection of 5940 accessions held in the genebank at ICRISAT, Patancheru, India. The comparison of means, variances, frequency distribution, Shannon-Weaver diversity index (H¢) and phenotypic correlations indicated that the core subset represents the entire collection. These tests indicated that sampling was optimal and the diversity has been captured very well in the core subset. The correlation analysis indicated that panicle exsertion and longest finger length could be given lower priority in the future germplasm evaluation work of finger millet.

Diversity Level, Spearman’s Ranking and Core Collections from 98 Rice Germplasm through Quantitative, Qualitative and Molecular Characterizations

“…Considering this view, selection of one genotype having better traits along with additional criterion from each group/cluster was done. More or less similar strategies were also practices earlier by Singh et al (1991), Hu et al (2000), Cui et al (2004), Li et al (2004b) and Upadhyaya et al (2006). However, Wang et al (2007) also identified different evaluating parameters for rice core collection based on genotypic values and molecular marker information.…”

“…Li et al (2004a) also reported the deviation sampling strategy in combination with the un-weighted pair-group average method of hierarchical clustering retained the greatest degree of genetic diversities of the initial collection. Similarly, Upadhyaya et al (2006) developed core subset of finger millet germplasm by using the geographical origin and the data based on quantitative traits.…”

Selection of Core Collection from <i>Jesso-Balam</i> Rice (<i>Oryza sativa</i> L.) Accessions Using Quantitative, Qualitative and Molecular Characters-A Review

“…Considering this, genotype from each group/cluster having superior traits and criterion were selected. More or less similar strategies were also practiced earlier by Hu et al (2000), Cui et al (2004), Li et al (2004b) and Upadhyaya et al (2006). Wang et al (2007) also identified different evaluating parameters for rice core collection based on genotypic values and molecular marker information.…”

Morphological variability for qualitative and quantitative traits in finger millet (Eleusine coracana L. Gaertn)

“…Group information on which a superior accession with economic traits belong will in future help to check more accessions from the same group with similar or closely related economic traits and further be used in finger millet breeding program (Upadhyaya et al, 2004). …”

“…Finger millet (Eleusine coracana L. Gaertn) (2n=4x=36) is one of the most important small grain cereals grown in eastern and southern Africa for food security and subsistent economy itshigh nutritive and cultural value (Dida et al, 2008). Finger millet is an important food in traditional low input cereal-based farming system (Wolie and Dessalegn, 2011), and the crop is also highly cultivated in Southern Asia in India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and China (Upadhyaya et al, 2004). The nutritional quality of finger millet is highly superior to that of most cultivated cereals in the world, being rich in proteins, fiber and minerals; most importantly calcium and iron, which greatly help in alleviating the problems associated with malnutrition and anemia in countries where it is widely consumed as a staple food (Babu et al, 2006).…”