Transgenic Finger Millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] for Crop Improvement

Abstract

Finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] is a nutritionally enriched member of the Poaceae family and sixth most important cereal crop. The crop is mostly cultivated throughout Asia, Africa, and South America. Finger millet is a rich source of minerals, vitamins, dietary fibers, and proteins as compared to other millets. The crop has a diverse gene pool with distinct features and genetic variations. It has several advantages of nutritional quality and quantity, health benefits, and abiotic and biotic stress adaptation over other cereals. Sustainable crop improvement is one of the critical tasks in the present-day plant breeding programs. Conventional methods of plant breeding have improved the crop yields, but have their limitations. In such a scenario, targeted and less time-consuming molecular marker-assisted breeding and genetic engineering-based tools and techniques are encouraged. In this chapter, we have discussed some of the transgenics developed in finger millet for crop improvement.