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A plausible screening approach for moisture stress tolerance in finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.) germplasm accessions using membership function value at the seedling stage

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Abstract

Finger millet is a drought-tolerant crop that grows better under water-limited conditions. However, a lack of moisture during germination affects seedling emergence and growth, ultimately affecting crop yield. Hence, identifying germplasm accessions that are drought tolerant could be of great importance to breeders. However, no systemic approach has been proposed for screening finger millet germplasm accession for moisture stress at the seedling stage. In the present study, we evaluated drought tolerance using PEG-8000 mediated moisture stress in 92 finger millet germplasm. The membership function value (MFV) was used as an index to assess and select finger millet germplasm for drought tolerance. Furthermore, a regression model was designed based on the mean MFV of all traits, which explained more than 95% of the variation in the total population. Of all the examined traits, the seedling vigour index was the most reliable, showing the highest correlation with drought tolerance at the seedling stage. We also developed an effective mathematical evaluation model for assessing finger millet germplasm for drought tolerance at the seedling stage. These findings laid the groundwork for further research into drought-tolerance mechanisms and the development of drought-tolerant finger millet cultivars.

Highlights

  • Screening large germplasm under field conditions for drought tolerance could be laborious, costly and time consuming; therefore, screening at laboratory level could be easy, cost-effective, and require less time.

  • Screening using several models like percent reduction, stress tolerance index, etc. could be considered, but the membership function value (MFV) could be a better approach, which considers all the parameters and all the genotypes in calculating the MFV value.

  • Using the MFV values, all the released cultivars were found moderately tolerant, and a few stress-tolerant accessions, were GE-50, GE-4568, GE-128, GE-1026, and GE-6998. The highly susceptible accessions were GE-837, GE-1309, GE-4976, and GE-5123.

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Data availability

Transparent (Supplementary) and deposited in Library, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore, India.

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank Dr. M.S. Sheshshayee, Professor & Head, Department of Crop Physiology, for his encouragement in conduct of experiments, Dr. T. V Krishna, Asst. Professor (GPB), ZARS, UAS, GKVK for his guidance in conduct of experiments and Mrs. K.R. Manasa, Department of Crop Physiology, UAS, GKVK, Bengaluru for her generous support in conducting the experiments.

Funding

Genetic enhancement & bio-availability—Finger millet (Ragi), Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India (No. BT/IC-2/ISCB/Phase-IV/03/RAGI/2014 dated 19–06-2014).

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Author notes

  1. Mayank Pratap Singh Bangari and Asha Sastya have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560065, India

    Mayank Pratap Singh Bangari, Asha Sastya & Yellodu Adi Reddy Nanja Reddy

  2. Department of Plant and Soil Science, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, 7906, USA

    Mayank Pratap Singh Bangari

  3. French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede-Boqer Campus, 849900, Be’er Sheva, Israel

    Asha Sastya

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The first author conducted the experiment and wrote the first manuscript. The second author supported equally in conducting the experiments. Third author formulated the project, supervised the conduct of experiment, and revised the manuscript for publication.

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Correspondence to Yellodu Adi Reddy Nanja Reddy.

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Bangari, M.P.S., Sastya, A. & Reddy, Y.A.R.N. A plausible screening approach for moisture stress tolerance in finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.) germplasm accessions using membership function value at the seedling stage. Genet Resour Crop Evol 71, 1773–1784 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-023-01730-5

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