Identification of trait-specific germplasm and developing a mini core collection for efficient use of foxtail millet genetic resources in crop improvement

Abstract

Foxtail millet is an important staple crop in some parts of China, India and Japan, and a potential bioenergy source. The grains are rich source of protein, fiber, minerals and vitamins. We had earlier reported the development of a core collection (155 accessions) of foxtail millet. This study was initiated to identify trait-specific germplasm for agronomic and nutritional traits, and to develop a mini core through multilocational evaluation of the foxtail millet core collection. One hundred and fifty-five accessions together with five controls (four common and one location-specific control) were evaluated for 21 descriptors at five agro-ecologically diverse locations in India during the 2008 rainy season. The experiment was conducted in an alpha design with three replications at Patancheru, and in an augmented design with one of the five controls repeated after every nine-test entries at other locations. A number of diverse germplasm accessions with agronomically (earliness and high grain yield) and nutritionally (high seed protein, calcium, iron and zinc) superior traits were identified for use in foxtail millet breeding. The hierarchical cluster analysis of data using phenotypic distances resulted in 25 clusters, from each cluster, ∼10% or a minimum of one accession was selected to form a mini core, which comprised of 35 accessions. The comparison of mean, variance, frequency distribution, diversity (H') and phenotypic correlations revealed that the mini core indeed captured adequate variability from the core collection. This mini core collection is an ideal pool of diverse germplasm for studying population structure and diversity, and identifying new sources of variation for use in breeding and genomics studies in foxtail millet.

Variability for Productivity and Nutritional Traits in Germplasm of Kodo Millet, an Underutilized Nutrient‐Rich Climate Smart Crop

“…Earlier studies have reported protein content of 9.2 to 11.2% using a few germplasm (Kulkarni and Naik, 2000;Kewat et al, 2016). Average Zn (23-25 mg kg −1 ) and protein (7.9-8.5%) contents in the kodo millet accessions used in this study were greater than those in finger millet germplasm (Zn 19.9 mg kg −1 , protein 7.3%) (Upadhyaya et al, 2011a), and Ca content (190-213 mg kg −1 ) was greater than in foxtail millet (146 mg kg −1 ) (Upadhyaya et al, 2011b) and proso millet (165 mg kg −1 ) (Vetriventhan Table 7. In proso millet, the race ovatum was found to have considerably higher grain nutrients than other races (Vetriventhan and Upadhyaya, 2018).…”

Identification of Blast Resistance in a Core Collection of Foxtail Millet Germplasm

“…This accession was found resistant to three of the four isolates tested. In addition, ISe 1685 and ISe 1541 recorded higher grain yields compared with the best control, ISe 1468 (30). Therefore, these agronomically superior blast-resistant accessions can be directly released for cultivation in farmers' fields after thorough testing in yield trials in the relevant locations.…”

“…ISe 1419, which is resistant to sheath, neck, and head blast against all four isolates and has leaf blast resistance to two isolates (Fx 58 and Fx 60), was among the 26 best accessions with three or more agronomic and nutritional trait (Ca, Zn, and protein) combinations selected by Upadhyaya et al (30) from the foxtail millet core collection. Blastresistant accessions ISe 1059, -1181, and -1685, and ISe -1059 and -1187, were among the trait-specific accessions identified for Ca and Fe content, respectively (30). ISe 1067 and germplasm check ISe 1541 were identified as the best sources of protein among the 16 blast-resistant accessions.…”

Biofortification in Millets: A Sustainable Approach for Nutritional Security

“…For the past two decades, germplasm characterization at ICRISAT has led to the establishment of core and minicore collections for pearl millet (Bhattacharjee et al, 2007; Upadhyaya et al, 2009, 2011a), finger millet (Upadhyaya et al, 2006), and foxtail millet (Upadhyaya et al, 2008, 2011b) while only core collections was established for other small millets (Upadhyaya et al, 2014) ( Figure 1 ).…”