Biotech Today

Finger millet, is a highly self-pollinated, allo-tetraploid crop believed to have been domesticated in East Africa, probably in the highland region that extends from Ethiopia to Uganda. It is known to save the lives of poor farmers from starvation at times of extreme drought. One of the major yield limiting factors is blast disease caused by Magnaporthe grisea. It is more nutritious than most cereal grains with respect to minerals, dietary fibre and amino acids. With the advancement of molecular marker technology, a lot of progress has been made in majority of the crops except neglected crops like small millets, such as finger millet, though it is highly nutritious crop. Aconsiderable amount of work has been done for assessing the genetic diversity among finger millet germplasm using microsatellite and EST based microsatellite markers. The first genetic map of finger millet was also available using 82 SSR markers. The present review describes the application, status and future perspectives of molecular marker technology for finger millet crop improvement.