Abstract
Finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] is an important climate-resilient nutrient-dense crop grown as a staple food grain in Asia and Africa. Utilizing the full potential of the crop mainly depends on an in-depth exploration of the vast diversity in its germplasm. In this study, the global finger millet germplasm diversity panel of 314 accessions was genotyped, using the DArTseq approach to assess genetic diversity and population structure. We obtained 33,884 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers on 306 accessions after filtering. Finger millet germplasm showed considerable genetic diversity, and the mean polymorphic information content, gene diversity, and Shannon Index were 0.110, 0.114, and 0.194, respectively. The average genetic distance of the entire set was 0.301 (range 0.040 – 0.450). The accessions of the race elongata (0.326) showed the highest average genetic distance, and the least was in the race plana (0.275); and higher genetic divergence was observed between elongata and vulgaris (0.320), while the least was between compacta and plana (0.281). An average, landrace accessions had higher gene diversity (0.144) and genetic distance (0.299) than the breeding lines (0.117 and 0.267, respectively). A similar average gene diversity was observed in the accessions of Asia (0.132) and Africa (0.129), but Asia had slightly higher genetic distance (0.286) than African accessions (0.276), and the distance between these two regions was 0.327. This was also confirmed by a model-based STRUCTURE analysis, genetic distance-based clustering, and principal coordinate analysis, which revealed two major populations representing Asia and Africa. Analysis of molecular variance suggests that the significant population differentiation was mainly due to within individuals between regions or between populations while races had a negligible impact on population structure. Finger millet diversity is structured based on a geographical region of origin, while the racial structure made negligible contribution to population structure. The information generated from this study can provide greater insights into the population structure and genetic diversity within and among regions and races, and an understanding of genomic-assisted finger millet improvement.
Highlights
Finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.)] is an important nutraceutical crop
The frequency distribution of polymorphism information content (PIC), minor allele frequency (MAF), and gene diversity (He), considering landraces and breeding lines were depicted in the Supplementary Figure 1
The population structure among the 306 finger millet accessions was assessed with STRUCTURE v.2.3.4, and the results revealed the existence of two major populations according to a geographical region of origin (K = 2) (Figures 5A,B)
Summary
Finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.)] is an important nutraceutical crop. It is highly adapted to the semiarid tropics and is grown as a staple food crop in Asia and Africa. Finger millet is gaining importance and drawing attention globally due to its grain nutrient composition, with high dietary fiber (11–20%), essential amino acids, vitamins, and micronutrients, calcium (1.8–4.9 g/kg), iron (∼22–65 mg/kg), zinc (∼17–25 mg/kg), protein (6–11%), carbohydrates (65–75%), and other minerals; it is gluten-free (Chethan and Malleshi, 2007; Upadhyaya et al, 2011; Shobana et al, 2013; Devi et al, 2014; Longvah et al, 2017) This enables it to deliver multiple benefits in terms of health compared with major cereals (Saleh et al, 2013). Finger millet grains are highly resistant to pest attacks and can be stored for long (Iyengar et al, 1945; Mgonja et al, 2007) and provide nutritional support to countries in the developing world (Mgonja et al, 2007; Gupta et al, 2017)
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