Finger millet diversity

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.) is an allotetraploid (2n = 4X = 36, AABB) belonging to the Family Poaceae and the genus Eleusine. The genome size of finger millet is 1,593 Mb and is a self-pollinated crop (Goron and Raizada, 2015). It is an annual herbaceous cereal crop widely grown and consumed by poor people in Africa and Asia. It contains rich amounts of protein, mineral nutrient as compared to other major cereals like wheat, rice, and sorghum (Gupta et al., 2017; Sharma et al., 2017). Finger millet is well known for its exceptionally high calcium (Ca) content having about 0.34% in whole seeds as compared with 0.01-0.06% in most other cereals (Kumar et al., 2016; Gupta et al., 2017). The seeds are abundant source of dietary fiber, iron, essential amino acids viz., isoleucine, leucine, methionine, phenylalanine, pytates and trypsin inhibitory factors, and are also gluten-free