Diversity Assessment in Cultivated Finger Millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] Genotypes using SSR Markers

Author: Kajal Patel, Arna Das, Rumit Patel, Juned Memon, Mayank Patel, Unnati Patel and Dipak A. Patel

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Abstract

Finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] is one of the most important minor millets available in the world, and is cultivated mostly in harsh tropical weather of Africa and South Asia. It is a nutri-cereal, rich in protein and calcium with allied health benefits and is a potent crop for food security, though only negligible improvement has been observed for the crop so far because it was not a mainstream crop but now a days it is a better crop to cultivate in arid and semi-arid locations due to its capacity to flourish in marginal areas with little irrigation and poor soil fertility. Assessment of genetic diversity is a basic requirement for crop improvement for which simple sequence repeat (SSR) molecular markers are the most feasible technologies available in terms of specificity and cost-effectiveness. The present investigation was aimed to assess molecular divergence in 25 finger millet accessions through 19SSR markers, of which eight showed polymorphism. A total of 25 SSR amplicons (72 to 291 base pairs) was observed. Major allele frequency per marker (MAF), effective allele frequency per marker (Ae), heterozygosity (He) and Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) had an average of 0.48, 2.91, 0.63 and 0.61 respectively. Six markers had higher He and PIC hence could be exploited for agro-economic trait association studies. It was depicted that number of genotypes responding per marker (GR) had an inverse relation with Ae, whereas, Ae had a positive relation with He and PICbuta negative relation with MAF. Euclidean distance method revealed considerable divergence between genotypes with degree of dissimilarity ranging from 1.751 to 4.406 indicating that the accessions might be utilized for crop improvement in finger millet. Dendrogram revealed two distinct clusters, white seeded cultivars formed one cluster and the rest formed another indicating involvement of distinct gene expression for grain colour. The diverse accessions might be utilized for crop improvement.

Keywords

Clustering, Diversity, Finger millet, SSR, PIC, Euclidean distance

Conclusion

More number of alleles per marker (A) will definitely lead to more number of genotypes responding per marker (GR) for one allele or the other, leading to less number of effective allele and more number of major allele frequencies and also will generate a good amount of PIC. This was actually the outcome for the marker FMO14; having highest PIC value it could be utilized best in chromosomal mapping. This outcome surely can be exploited in hybridization programme where two national checks can be crossed, or any Gujarat variety can be crossed with other belonging to two different major clusters hence ensuring considerable divergence.

References

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How to cite this article

Kajal Patel, Arna Das, Rumit Patel, Juned Memon, Mayank Patel, Unnati Patel and Dipak A. Patel (2023). Diversity Assessment in Cultivated Finger Millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] Genotypes using SSR Markers. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(5): 216-224.