ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Breeding
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Climate-Resilient Crop Plants: Integrating Molecular and Physiological StrategiesView all 6 articles
Integrating Morphological and Molecular Diversity to Develop High-Biomass Fodder Pearl Millet Composites
Provisionally accepted
Udit Prakash1
VIJAY KUMAR YADAV2*
Dr Brijesh Kumar Mehta2
Krishna Kumar Dwivedi2
Rakesh Choudhary1
Shweta Shweta3
Shashikumara P2*- 1Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi, India
- 2Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute (ICAR), Jhānsi, India
- 3Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, India
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Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L. R. Br., syn. Cenchrus americanus [L.] Morrone) is a climate-resilient cereal and a vital fodder source in arid and semi-arid regions. Identification and characterization of diverse inbred lines are essential for developing superior forage composites and hybrids with enhanced yield and stress resilience. In this study, 96 fodder pearl millet inbreds along with four checks were evaluated during rainy season 2024 and summer seasons 2025 for 29 morpho-physiological and root architectural traits, complemented by molecular characterization using 46 polymorphic SSR markers. Significant genotypic variation and strong genotype × season interactions were observed for key yield and physiological traits, indicating substantial environmental responsiveness. Correlation analyses identified stem girth, plant height, dry matter yield, and major root traits as major determinants of green fodder yield. Morphological clustering grouped genotypes into five clusters, with maximum divergence between Clusters II and V. SSR analysis detected 203 alleles across 46 loci (average: 5.28 alleles per locus; PIC = 0.62), and population structure analysis resolved six genetic groups highlighting their potential use as heterotic parents. Based on combined phenotypic and molecular diversity, selected inbreds were randomly intermated to develop eight fodder composites. Two composites exhibited 17–20% higher green fodder yield than the best check cultivar. These results demonstrate that integrating morphological and molecular diversity enables effective parental selection and rapid development of superior high-biomass fodder pearl millet composites.
Keywords: biomass yield, composites, Forage pearl millet, genetic diversity, SSR markers
Received: 13 Dec 2025; Accepted: 21 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Prakash, YADAV, Mehta, Dwivedi, Choudhary, Shweta and P. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
VIJAY KUMAR YADAV
Shashikumara P
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