ABSTRACT
Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is a climate-resilient dryland cereal that has been identified as a potential staple food crop that can contribute to alleviating micronutrient malnutrition, particularly with respect to grain iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) contents, in Sub-Saharan Africa and India. In this regard, an understanding of the inheritance pattern of genes involved in Fe and Zn contents is vital for devising appropriate breeding methods to genetically enhance their levels in grains. In this study, we aimed to determine the genetic effects underlying such inheritance and their interactions based on the generation mean analyses. Four experimental crosses and their six generations (P1, P2, F1, BCP1, BCP2, and F2) were independently evaluated in a compact family block design in 2017 rainy and 2018 summer seasons. ANOVA revealed highly significant mean squares (p < 0.01) among different generations for grain Fe and Zn contents. Six-parameter generation mean analyses revealed a predominance of additive genetic effect and a significant (p < 0.05) additive × dominant interaction for the grain Fe content. The additive genetic effect for the grain Zn content was also highly significant (p < 0.01). However, interaction effects contributed minimally with respect to most of the crosses for the grain Zn content and hence we assume that a simple digenic inheritance pattern holds true for it. Furthermore, we established that narrow-sense heritability was high for the grain Fe content (>61.78%), whereas it was low to moderate for the grain Zn content (30.60-59.04%). The lack of superior parent heterosis coupled with non-significant inbreeding depression for Fe and Zn contents in grains further confirmed the predominance of an additive genetic effect. These findings will contribute to strategizing a comprehensive breeding method to exploit the available variability of grain Fe and Zn contents for the development of biofortified hybrids of pearl millet.
ABSTRACT
Pearl millet hybrids biofortified with iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) promise to be part of a long-term strategy to combat micronutrient malnutrition in the arid and semi-arid tropical (SAT) regions of the world. Biofortification through molecular breeding is the way forward to achieving a rapid trait-based breeding strategy. This genome-wide association study (GWAS) was conducted to identify significant marker-trait associations (MTAs) for Fe, Zn, and protein content (PC) for enhanced biofortification breeding. A diverse panel of 281 advanced inbred lines was evaluated for Fe, Zn, and PC over two seasons. Phenotypic evaluation revealed high variability (Fe: 32-120 mg kg-1, Zn: 19-87 mg kg-1, PC: 8-16%), heritability (hbs2 ≥ 90%) and significantly positive correlation among Fe, Zn and PC (P = 0.01), implying concurrent improvement. Based on the Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) seq assay, 58,719 highly informative SNPs were filtered for association mapping. Population structure analysis showed six major genetic groups (K = 6). A total of 78 MTAs were identified, of which 18 were associated with Fe, 43 with Zn, and 17 with PC. Four SNPs viz., Pgl04_64673688, Pgl05_135500493, Pgl05_144482656, and Pgl07_101483782 located on chromosomes Pgl04 (1), Pgl05 (2) and Pgl07 (1), respectively were co-segregated for Fe and Zn. Promising genes, 'Late embryogenesis abundant protein', 'Myb domain', 'pentatricopeptide repeat', and 'iron ion binding' coded by 8 SNPs were identified. The SNPs/genes identified in the present study presents prospects for genomics assisted biofortification breeding in pearl millet.
