Assistant Professor Department of Botany, Periyar University Salem, Tamil Nadu, India
Body of Abstract: Most effective, practical, scientifically validated strategy for addressing the global food insecurity of a growing population is enhancement of agricultural crop species by induced mutagenesis. Cereal crops were cultivated in greater amounts because they provide dependable food and energy on a global scale. Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn., finger millet is a self-pollinating crop that provides significant nutrients, particularly calcium. In the study, seeds were exposed to gamma irradiation at different doses and un-irradiated seeds served as the control. Biochemical analysis such as carbohydrate, reducing sugar, starch, protein, and amino acids showed dissimilarities and increased at optimum doses (300 to 600 Gy) compared to the control. The clumping finger mutant has been identified and subjected to gene expression for EcCIPK24 gene. SEM and mapping studies revealed, higher starch filling, dense and granular structure in mutant seed than control. In EDX studied revealed calcium, potassium and phosphorus were analysed in mutant and control (clumping finger mutant:2.42 than control:1.48 mg/100gm seed meal- 61.15% increases). Accumulation of Ca2+ has been during the grain filling stage in cell vacuole and cytosolic regions; role of Ca2+ transporters channels involved plasma membrane appears to be cell signaling. Ca decoding signaling network that is generated by the CIPK proteins is crucial for the responses of plants to abiotic stressors. Major Ca2+ sensors called calcineurin B-like proteins (CBLs) interact with CBL-interacting protein kinases (CIPKs) to control plant growth and developments. EcCIPK24 gene which regulates widely the accumulation of calcium and mediates signals from CBL binds calcium and represents a significant relay in finger millet calcium signaling also CBL-2 and-9 proteins binding affinity with CIPK24 protein was performed through protein-protein docking. In the current study, clumping finger mutants created rich calcium-producing finger millet variants due to increased CBL-2 and -9 proteins as an extraordinary seed calcium accumulation variety.