Background: Agricultural research chiefly focuses on the ways to increase productivity of staple food crops like wheat and rice, but still there are crops where research focus is meagre like nutritionally important mungbean crop grown by marginal farmers in crop rotation systems. Mungbean is leguminous crop which is high in protein content thus it offers health benefits at cheaper rates. The present work emphasizes on finding genetic diversity in mungbean germplasm on the basis of chemical and molecular analysis for micronutrients variation (iron and zinc). The identified molecular markers having linkage with high iron and zinc concentrations in the seeds can prove helpful in expansion of biofortification programme.Methods: Fifty-one green gram genotypes viz. varieties released from CCS Haryana Agricultural University (HAU), Hisar, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, Indian Institute of Pulse Research (IIPR), Kanpur and some advanced breeding lines were included in the study. Acid digested samples were used for determination of Fe and Zn by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Young seedlings leaves were used for isolation of genomic DNA using 2% CTAB (cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide). Result: Total of fifty-one mungbean genotypes were tested using fifty simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers. Out of fifty primers screened, 16 primers generated 35 bands. Iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) in mungbean lines was 36.90 to 107.1 mg/kg and 14.2 to 53.8 mg/kg respectively. The molecular studies based on SSR markers also indicates existence of ample genetic diversity at molecular level.
Genetic Analysis of Agronomic Traits and Grain Iron and Zinc Concentrations in a Doubled Haploid Population of Rice (Oryza sativa L.)
