Monday, 7 November 2005 - 5:15 PM
50-6

Prospects of Genetic Enhancement of Iron and Zinc in Pearl Millet.

KN Rai1, V Muralidharan2, VN Kulkarni1, TS Raveendran2, T Longvah3, and CT Hash1. (1) International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India, (2) Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, (3) National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh,, India

Micronutrient malnutrition arising from iron (Fe), zinc (Zn) and ß-carotene deficiency has emerged as a major nutritional security concern of widespread occurrence, especially in the developing world. The HarvestPlus Challenge Program of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has recently embarked upon addressing this issue through the delivery of crop cultivars with elevated levels of these micronutrients. Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.), annually grown on 26 million ha, mostly in the marginal environments in the arid and semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa, is one of the crops included in this initiative. A golden pearl millet germplasm originating from Burkina Faso has been identified at ICRISAT having ß-carotene level of 137 µg100-1g grain, which is comparable to that in golden rice. This germplasm currently serves as the one best source of ß-carotene. Evaluation of 120 genotypes during the 2004 rainy and postrainy season at ICRISAT-Patancheru, India, showed large variation among the genotypes for both the Fe (29-75 ppm in the postrainy season and 29-102 ppm in the rainy season) and Zn (25-62 ppm in the postrainy season and 24-81 ppm in the rainy season). It was also found that Fe and Zn density in grains were stable across the seasons with the correlation between the two seasons being positive and highly significant for Fe (r=0.66**) as well as for Zn (r=0.69**). Also, the correlation between and Fe and Zn was positive and highly significant in both season (r=0.78** in the postrainy season and r=0.82** in the rainy season), indicating good prospects of simultaneous selection for both micronutrients. Stability of materials selected for high Fe and Zn levels is being further evaluated, and more extensive evaluation of additional germplasm has been planned to examine if material with still higher Fe and Zn levels can be identified.

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