Advanced Biotechnological Tools for Genetic Improvement of Finger Millet

Growing human population demands a doubling of food production by 2050 necessitating significant increase in agricultural production, a challenge that is exacerbated by the changing climatic conditions. To tackle this, new lines of crops are continuously being identified, varieties bred, and transgenic technology developed, made possible by the deployment of modern molecular tools. Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.) is a nutritious millet, assuming high significance as a rich source of good quality protein, micro-nutrients like calcium and iron and fiber, apart from being drought-hardy. This crop has spectacular adaptive abilities, and the grain has superior keeping quality. The plethora of micronutrients consisting of an abundance of calcium and moderately high contents of iron, manganese, and phosphorus that are present in this grain in comparison to other cereals makes it a promising crop for nutritional studies. The crop’s status as an “orphan millet” has been remodelled by the recent attempts on genome sequencing and various transcriptomics studies in the crop making the time ripe for harnessing this information for genomic and functional genomic applications. The nutritional supremacy and extreme adaptability make the crop an interesting candidate for nutri-genomics and climate resilience studies. Modern genetic tools will aid in unravelling the untapped gene pool of the crop which might contribute towards agronomic and nutritional improvement of other crops. This chapter discusses the advancements in the areas of molecular marker technology, gene mapping, NGS based genomics, and modern breeding tools and genetic transformation in finger millet and how these tools are accelerating crop improvement.