SSR allele frequency changes in response to recurrent selection for pearl millet grain yield and other agronomic traits

Allele frequency changes resulting from conventionalrecurrent selection were monitored at 34 SSR locidistributed across all 7 linkage groups using full-sibprogenies (50 each) from released pearl millet openpollinatedvariety CO (Cu) 9 and its four immediateprogenitor populations (ICMP 87750, ICMP 91751,ICMP 93752 and UCC 23). Agronomic performance ofthese 250 full-sibs was assessed in two seasons ofreplicated field trials at ICRISAT, Patancheru, India,which demonstrated significant selection responses forflowering time and grain, stover and biomass yields, andtheir components. These selection responses wereaccompanied by significant, but non-linear, frequencychanges for common alleles at many monitored SSR loci.Substantial genetic variability remains within CO (Cu) 9,suggesting further selection to improve its grain andstover yield performance should be effective.