Variability in seed mineral composition of foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) landraces and released cultivars

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) belongs to poaceae and an important research model plant to explore nutritional pathways. The present study represents a comprehensive micronutrient report of twenty landraces, four released cultivars, and their genetic variability in micronutrient content. FT-IR analysis recorded various absorption peaks at different wavelenths coressponding to certain chemical compounds and functional groups such as carbohydrates, alkenes, proteins, sulfur compounds, amines and lipids, etc, indicate that all the studied genotypes endowed with carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. The ICP-OES analysis revealed a wide range of variation in micronutrient concentrations across the studied genotypes i.e Iron (3.69 to 7.51mg/100g), Zinc (4.54 to 5.71 mg/100g), Calcium (13.13 to 39.58 mg/100g), Potassium (219.43 to 349.47 mg/100g), Copper (0.60 to1.09 mg/100g), Manganese (1.05 to 1.64 mg/100g). The PCA and cluster analaysis highlight a wide range of genetic variability among the genotypes. Further, these genotypes were clustered into six variables based on the micronutrient content. In overall performance of landraces better than released cultivars in terms of micronutrient content. Landraces like S1G4, S1G2; and relesed varity Narasimharaya recorded higher quatities of micronutrient compared to other genotypes studied. These genotypes would be useful to fish out the genes responsible for higher micronutrient occumulation and also as parental lines in breeding progrmmes to develop enhanced micronutrient genotypes.