Genetic variability, genotype × environment interaction and correlation analysis for grain iron and zinc contents in recombinant inbred line population of pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L). R.

Abstract

Micronutrient malnutrition is one of the major health problem, especially iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) deficiencies that are widespread coupled with inadequate food supply in the developing world. Pearl millet grains are a good source of Fe and Zn elements making it a potential staple crop for overcoming hidden-hunger and micronutrient deficiencies. Breeding pearl millet with high levels of grain Zn and Fe contents represents a major opportunity to enhance the intake of these minerals for poor and malnourished people. A precise understanding of the genetic variability, correlation of mineral nutrients, genotype × environment (G × E) interaction is important for developing improved lines with high Fe and Zn content. To get fair estimates, we used a bi-parental recombinant inbred lines (RIL) mapping population representing F2 phenotypic variance. A total of 317 RILs were evaluated for grain iron and zinc content in two seasons, Summer 2016 (E1) and Summer 2017 (E2). The result from the analysis of variance exhibited a large variability for grain Fe and Zn content across the two environments. The G × E for high grain Fe were significant at P 0.01. The mean performance across the two environments data for grain Fe ranged from 22.9 to 154.5 mg kg-1 (ppm) and Zn content ranged from 19.3 to 121 mg kg-1. The correlation coefficient for grain Fe and Zn was 0.9, and 0.8 and across the two (E1 and E2) environments. The value of correlation coefficient (0.9) was found to be highly significant at P 0.01 level, that indicated good opportunities for simultaneous genetic improvement of both iron and zinc contents in pearl millet.

Multivariate Diversity Analysis for Grain Micronutrients Concentration, Yield and Agro-morphological Traits in Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L) R. Br.)

“…Higher range, more diversity Index and large differences in mean values for most of the characters revealed that sufficient diversity existed among the genotypes and traits. The present findings were similar with previous reports in pearl millet (Dapke et al, 2014;Anuradha et al, 2018;Sharma et al, 2018 andMahendrakar et al, 2019).…”

Genotype by Environment Interaction on Grain Yield Stability and Iron and Zinc Content in OPV of Pearl Millet in Ghana Using the AMMI Method

“…e values were low for grain yield (˂30%), medium for 1000-grain weight (56.01%) and grain Fe (57.99%), and very high (˃60%) for the other traits. Similar results of high heritability for grain Fe content have been reported by [48]. Although [31] argued that broadsense heritability alone cannot be relied upon to achieve full genetic gain through selection, [50] maintained that the amount of progress in selection of a trait of interest is influenced by heritability estimates and hence can be relied upon for selection for specific trait improvement.…”

“…Genotypic variance (σ 2 g) contributed a greater proportion of the phenotypic variance (σ 2 p) of majority of the traits and was 1.4-4.7 times that of the genotype × environment interaction variance (σ 2 g × e), indicating wide genetic variations among the genotypes for these traits and confirming the fact that these traits were largely controlled by genetic factors (Table 5). Recent studies reported similar genotype × environment interaction for pearl millet grains Fe and Zn and sesame [40,[47][48][49]. In the current studies, σ 2 p for grain yield showed that σ 2 g × e was 2.9 times σ 2 g, indicating that yield is greatly influenced by both genotype and environment interaction, though the environmental component exerted a disproportionally large influence than the genotypic component.…”

Pearl Millet: A Climate-Resilient Nutricereal for Mitigating Hidden Hunger and Provide Nutritional Security

“…In pearl millet, the bioavailability of Fe can be assumed to be 7.0–7.5% (Govindaraj et al, 2019 ). Approximately 50–100% of the daily requirement of iron can be met out with one meal of biofortified high-iron variety and is sufficient enough to overcome deficiency of iron in children, women and men (Kodkany et al, 2013 ; Mahendrakar et al, 2019 ).…”