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B. Sujata ¹, C. Nandini ¹, M. Krishnappa ¹, Chandrashekhar Angadi ¹, Prabhakar ¹

Affiliations
1 Project Coordinating Unit, Small Millets (U.A.S.) G.K.V.K., Bengaluru (Karnataka), IN

Abstract

An investigation was carried out in F₃ and F₄ segregating generations of little millet to study gene interactions and correlation for yield and its component traits during Kharif 2015 and summer 2016 at UAS, GKVK, Bengaluru. Most of the characters studied were positively skewed and were being governed by several genes indicating quantitative inheritance. Characters seed yield per plant, number of productive tillers per plant and days to maturity were positively skewed indicating complementary gene action hence, to maximize the genetic gain in these characters require intense selection from the existing variability. Panicle length showed negatively skewed distribution indicating duplicate gene action hence, genetic gain will be rapid under mild selection. Seed yield and associated characters showed leptokurtic distribution indicated the involvement of few genes in inheritance of these traits. Seed yield per plant had significant positive association with days to 50 per cent flowering, plant height, number of productive tillers per plant, panicle length and days to maturity. This indicates that selection could be practiced for these component characters to increase seed yield. Variance for majority of the characters has decreased in F₄ over F₃ generation indicated over the generation variability in population has decreased due to increase in homozygosity.

Keywords

Correlation, Skewness, Kurtosis, Gene Interaction, Little Millet.

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C. N. Neeraja ¹, V. Ravindra Babu ¹, Sewa Ram ², Firoz Hossain ³, K. Hariprasanna ⁴, B. S. Rajpurohit ⁵, Prabhakar ⁶, T. Longvah ⁷, K. S. Prasad ⁸, J. S. Sandhu ⁹, Swapan K. Datta ⁹

Affiliations
1 ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030, IN
2 ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Aggarsain Marg, Karnal-132 001, IN
3 ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa Campus, New Delhi-110 012, IN
4 ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030, IN
5 All India Coordinated Research Project on Pearl Millet, Mandor, Jodhpur-342 304, IN
6 All India Coordinated Research Project on Small Millets, Bengaluru-560 065, IN
7 National Institute of Nutrition, Jamai Osmania, Hyderabad-500 007, IN
8 National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bengaluru-560 030, IN
9 Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi-110 001, IN

Abstract

Food security of the country has been improved due to green revolution and enhancement of cereal production. However, recent surveys showed 35.8% of children suffer from malnutrition in India. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has taken lead for the biofortification of cereal crops based on earlier national and international research efforts, targeting the enhancement of nutrients in staple food crops. In this article, the significant progress made in rice, wheat, maize and millets for identification of genotypes, development, evaluation and release of the varieties with high nutrient contents and their bioavailability studies is discussed.

Keywords

Biofortification, Breeding, Bioavailability, Nutrients, Varieties.

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V. Thippeswamy ¹, G. M. Sajjanar ¹, Prabhakar

Affiliations
1 Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture (U.A.S.), Vijayapur (Karnataka), IN

Abstract

Genetic diversity analysis helps in identification of the diverse genotypes for hybridization purposes and to derive desirable segregants. Knowledge on the nature and magnitude of genetic diversity present in the crop species will play an important role in formulating a successful breeding programme. In this regard a field experiment was conducted to study the genetic diversity analysis for yield and yield contributing characters using 149 germplasm accessions of foxtail millet. Based on D² values, a total of 149 genotypes were grouped into 15 clusters, among these clusters, cluster I was the largest with 134 genotypes followed by cluster VIII with 2 genotypes whereas remaining 13 were solitary clusters. Maximum intra cluster distance among the genotypes was recorded by cluster I having 134 genotypes followed by cluster VIII with two genotypes. The maximum intra cluster distance in the cluster I indicated the genotypes in this cluster were relatively more diverse than the genotypes within other clusters. The maximum inter cluster distance was found between clusters IX and XIV followed by cluster VI and XIV, while it showed least distance between clusters II and cluster V followed by clusters III and VI, thus it can be concluded that, considerable diversity existed among 149 lines. The per cent contribution of yield and yield contributing characters to total divergence among nineteen characters were recorded. It showed that maximum contribution towards divergence was recorded by number of tillers per meter row length and 1000 seed weight followed by number of productive tillers/plant, days to maturity, days to 50% flowering, grain yield/hectare and plant height indicating the major role of these characters in building up diversity and differentiating inter cluster levels.All the 149 genotypes were spread over fifteen clusters and means were scored across the clusters for all the nineteen characters. Cluster IV with overall score of 78 across the nineteen characters secured first rank followed by cluster VI, cluster I and cluster IX indicating the presence of most promising genotypes in them and can be extensively used for further breeding programme to generate new material.

Keywords

Foxtail Millet, Genetic Diversity, D^² Values, Clusters, Yield Contributing Characters.

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