Genetic Diversity Analysis and Molecular Characterization of Pearl Millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] Hybrids/ Varieties

Pearl millet is an extensively grown, climate resilient and rainfed cereal crop cultivated on 30 million ha in the arid and semi-arid tropical regions of Asia and Africa contributing towards almost half of the global millet production. It exhibits several climate-resilient features and thus can survive in harsh climatic conditions. But, in the changing climatic scenario, its productivity is decreasing and there is a high need for developing high yielding hybrids and varieties in order to increase its productivity. Thus, understanding and analyzing the genetic diversity is very imperative and necessary to develop superior hybrids of pearl millet. In this study, a total of 24 genotypes including 19 different released hybrids and 5 varieties of pearl millet were used for diversity analysis using 156 Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers. Out of these, 91 SSRs were observed to be polymorphic giving 284 alleles. The number of alleles per locus varied from 2 to 6 with an average of 3.12 alleles. Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) values ranged from 0.31 to 0.78 with an average of 0.58 PIC value. Cluster analysis on the basis of SSRs grouped these 24 genotypes into four major clusters viz., I, II, III, IV with the similarity coefficient varying between 0.59 to 0.78. The results revealed that adequate genetic variability subsists among the hybrids and varieties used in the present study and these can be further used in the pearl millet improvement programs. The findings also divulge that SSR markers are very dexterous and can be used proficiently for genetic diversity evaluation in pearl millet. It is also foreseen that results of the current study may be used further for varietal identification and DNA fingerprinting.