Kharb, PushpaChanchal, Divya2017-10-092017-10-092017http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810032541Pearl millet is a highly cross pollinated C4 monocot plant belonging to family, Poaceae. In this study, seventy five pearl millet inbred lines were evaluated for six morphological traits viz., days to 50 per cent flowering, plant height, ear length, ear diameter, 1000 grain weight and grain yield per plant along with grain Fe, Zn and crude protein content in randomized block design (RBD) with two replications during kharif 2016. Eighteen polymorphic SSR primer pairs, selected after initial screening of 40 SSR primers were used for molecular diversity analysis among these inbred lines. The analysis of variance for all the traits revealed significant differences indicating the presence of substantial genetic variation among the inbred lines. There was a close resemblance between the corresponding estimates of PCV and GCV indicating the influence of environment on the expression of these traits. The PCV and GCV were maximum for grain yield per plant. There was a positive correlation between Fe and Zn content but no correlation with grain yield suggesting that these traits may be improved simultaneously without any penalty on grain yield. Molecular marker analysis revealed that the 18 SSR primers amplified a total of 43 alleles, ranging between 2-4, with an average of 2.38 alleles per locus and average PIC of 0.30. The size of PCR amplified products ranged from 140 bp to 1200 bp. UPGMA cluster analysis grouped the 75 inbred lines into two major clusters at a similarity coefficient of 0.42. Inbred lines namely; EBL12/237, TPBL-11-105, CPBL-11-103, HBL1113 and HFI-10-140 exhibited higher grain Fe and Zn content as compared to HBL-11, male progenitor of many elite pearl millet hybrids, giving a scope for developing superior hybrids. Based on the mean performance, HBL 1107 and HPT-1-12-189-2 were found to be micronutrient and protein and with high grain yield. The line HMS 18B shared 89% similarity with HBL 11 at genetic level suggesting that HMS 18B may be used as male parent in hybrid development programmes.ennullThesis