Gene Discovery and Advances in Finger Millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] Genomics—An Important Nutri-Cereal of Future

The rapid strides in molecular marker technologies followed by genomics, and next generation sequencing advancements in three major crops (rice, maize and wheat) of the world have given opportunities for their use in the orphan, but highly valuable future crops, including finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.]. Finger millet has many special agronomic and nutritional characteristics, which make it an indispensable crop in arid, semi-arid, hilly and tribal areas of India and Africa. The crop has proven its adaptability in harsh conditions and has shown resilience to climate change. The adaptability traits of finger millet have shown the advantage over major cereal grains under stress conditions, revealing it as a storehouse of important genomic resources for crop improvement. Although new technologies for genomic studies are now available, progress in identifying and tapping these important alleles or genes is lacking. RAPDs were the default choice for genetic diversity studies in the crop until the last decade, but the subsequent development of SSRs and comparative genomics paved the way for the marker assisted selection in finger millet. Resistance gene homologues from NBS-LRR region of finger millet for blast and sequence variants for nutritional traits from other cereals have been developed and used invariably. Population structure analysis studies exhibit 2-4 sub-populations in the finger millet gene pool with separate grouping of Indian and exotic genotypes. Recently, the omics technologies have been efficiently applied to understand the nutritional variation, drought tolerance and gene mining. Progress has also occurred with respect to transgenics development. This review presents the current biotechnological advancements along with research gaps and future perspective of genomic research in finger millet

Nutraceutical value of finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.), and their improvement using omics approaches

The science of nutritional biology has progressed extensively over the last decade to develop food-based nutraceuticals as a form of highly personalized medicine or therapeutic agent. Finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] is a crop with potentially tremendous but under-explored source of nutraceutical properties as compared to other regularly consumed cereals. In the era of growing divide and drawback of nutritional security, these characteristics must be harnessed to develop finger millet as a novel functional food. In addition, introgression of these traits into other staple crops can improve the well-being of the general population on a global scale. The objective of this review is to emphasize the importance of biofortification of finger millet in context of universal health and nutritional crisis. We have specifically highlighted the role that recent biotechnological advancements have to offer for enrichment of its nutritional value and how these developments can commission to the field of nutritional biology by opening new avenues for future research

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Not AvailableCalcium is one of the most important mineral elements required in adequate amounts in the diet for sound health. Improved intake of calcium in the diet is the most cost-effective way to overcome its deficiency. Finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] is an excellent model system for investigating the genetic control of calcium accumulation in crops because of the very high calcium content in its grains. Therefore, a set of 202 diverse global finger millet accessions were evaluated for grain calcium content in two diverse environments in India. Phenotypic measurements for grain calcium content showed wide variation among the accessions, which ranged from 53 to 454 mg per 100g grains. High throughput genotyping by sequencing (GBS) identified 2977 genome-wide high-quality SNPs for marker-trait association (MTA) analysis with respect to grain calcium content, days to maturity, and grain yield. We found 44 common SNP-trait associations using general and mixed linear models contributing 4.80–17.79% phenotypic variance for calcium trait, 5 and 1 common SNPs associated with grain yield and days to maturity expressing 5.52–13.12%, and 5.83–6.75% phenotypic variance, respectively. Among 44 MTA's for calcium content, two putative SNP marker sequences were found homologous to candidate genes viz., calmodulin-binding protein (CBP) and CBL-Interacting Protein Kinase7 (CIPK7) of Setaria italic (Foxtail millet), which might be playing a pivotal role in grain calcium accumulation. Differential expression analysis by qPCR showed that the two genes (EcCBP and EcCIPK7) were highly expressed in high calcium genotypes (HCG) as compared to medium and low calcium genotypes (LCG). These two genes might be involved in regulating the activities of CaX exchanger and calmodulin (CAM) proteins resulting in high grain calcium accumulation.Not Availabl

Role of Genetic Resources in Management of Potato Pests and Disease

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Variation in oil content and fatty acid composition of linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) cultivars and their hybrids in sub-mountainous Himalayan region of India

The study assessed the level of variation in oil content and fatty acid composition of linseed cultivars, elite lines and hybrids in sub-mountainous Himalayan region of India. The oil content ranged from 34.60 to 41.14 % in the experimental material. Yellow seeded cultivars had higher oil content in comparison to brown seeded genotypes. Two saturated (Palmitic and steric acid) and three unsaturated fatty acids (Oleic, linoleic and linolenic acid) identified by gas chromatography represented 8.81% and 90.89% of the total oil, respectively. Widest range of variation was observed for linolenic acid followed by oleic acid,while the highest GCV was recorded for linoleic acid. Cross combinations exhibited wider range of variation for linolenic acid in comparison to the parents. All the traits exhibited low heritability and low genetic advance except 1000-seed weight. Oil content showed weak positive association with seed weight. Palmitic acid also showed positive association with oleic acid however, linoleic acid had negative association with linoleic, oleic and stearic acid. Results indicated that induced mutagenesis coupled with recombination breeding will be more beneficial for the development of low linolenic acid lines in linseed

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Not AvailableFinger millet (Eleusine coracana L. Gaertn) is an important minor millet for food and nutritional security in semi-arid regions of the world. The crop has wide adaptability and can be grown right from high hills in Himalayan region to coastal plains. It provides food grain as well as palatable straw for cattle, and is fairly climate resilient. The crop has large gene pool with distinct features of both Indian and African germplasm types. Interspecific hybridization between Indian and African germplasm has resulted in greater yield enhancement and disease resistance. The crop has shown numerous advantages over major cereals in terms of stress adaptation, nutritional quality and health benefits. It has indispensable repository of novel genes for the benefits of mankind. Although rapid strides have been made in allele mining in model crops and major cereals, the progress in finger millet genomics is lacking. Comparative genomics have paved the way for the marker-assisted selection, where resistance gene homologues of rice for blast and sequence variants for nutritional traits from other cereals have been invariably used. Transcriptomics studies have provided preliminary understanding of the nutritional variation, drought and salinity tolerance. However, the genetics of many important traits in finger millet is poorly understood and need systematic efforts from biologists across disciplines. Recently, deciphered finger millet genome will enable identification of candidate genes for agronomically and nutritionally important traits. Further, improvement in genome assembly and application of genomic selection as well as genome editing in near future will provide plethora of information and opportunity to understand the genetics of complex traits.Not Availabl

Value addition and nutritional fortification of finger millet [<i>Eleusine</i> <i>coracana</i> (L.) Gaertn.] using bark of <i>Gethi</i> (<i>Boehmeria</i> <i>regulosa</i> Wedd.) tree

519-524Finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.], an important coarse cereal of Indian Subcontinent and Africa, is devoid of gluten and, therefore, lacks the bread making quality of wheat. A traditional method of imparting finger millet the bread making quality of wheat using bark of a tree locally known as Gethi (Boehmeria regulosa Wedd.) and, the physical properties and nutritional composition of the bark are reported in the present study. The method has been found effective with other coarse cereals such as maize, sorghum, pearl millet and barnyard millet, and pseudo-cereals, viz. buckwheat and amaranth. Preliminary phytochemical analysis of the bark showed presence of appreciable amounts of phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidant activity, besides high viscosity. The bark is also rich in iron and zinc, signifying its potential efficacy in nutritional fortification of coarse cereals and pseudo-cereals apart from improving their bread making quality

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Not AvailableFinger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.], an important coarse cereal of Indian Subcontinent and Africa, is devoid of gluten and, therefore, lacks the bread making quality of wheat. A traditional method of imparting finger millet the bread making quality of wheat using bark of a tree locally known as Gethi (Boehmeria regulosa Wedd.) and, the physical properties and nutritional composition of the bark are reported in the present study. The method has been found effective with other coarse cereals such as maize, sorghum, pearl millet and barnyard millet, and pseudo-cereals, viz. buckwheat and amaranth. Preliminary phytochemical analysis of the bark showed presence of appreciable amounts of phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidant activity, besides high viscosity. The bark is also rich in iron and zinc, signifying its potential efficacy in nutritional fortification of coarse cereals and pseudo-cereals apart from improving their bread making qualityNot Availabl

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Not AvailableAllele identification for agro-morphological traits and stress resistance is a major concern across the globe for improving productivity of finger millet. Here, we used 46 genomic and 58 genic simple sequence repeats (SSRs) markers in a set of 66 accessions used to constitute a global mini-core collection for analysing their genetic structure as a population and establishing association among markers and twenty morphological traits including resistance to finger blast. Phenotypic data revealed a wide range of variation for all traits except flag leaf width and flag leaf sheath width. We got amplification of 81 alleles by the 31 genomic SSRs at an average of 2.61 alleles per locus. Polymorphism information content (PIC) values varied from 0.21 to 0.75 and average gene diversity was 0.49. Structure analysis of the population using the genomic SSR data divided the accessions into two clusters where Indian and exotic accessions were grouped in separate clusters. Genic SSRs which were associated with blast resistance genes, amplified 36 alleles at an average of 2 alleles per locus. PIC values ranged from 0.32 to 0.37 and average gene diversity was 0.45. Population structure analysis using data from these SSRs grouped the accessions into three clusters, which broadly correspond to their reaction to blast disease. Twenty-two significant associations were found using the GLM approach for 20 agro-morphological traits both in 2012 and 2014, while, 7 and 5 significant marker-trait associations were identified using MLM in 2012 and 2014 respectively. The SSR markers FMBLEST35 and FMBLEST36 designed from the Pi21 gene sequence of rice were found to be associated with blast disease resistance in finger millet indicating that the gene homologues play a significant role in an important role for neck blast resistance.Not Availabl