Vol. 7, Issue 6 (2018)

Author(s):
R Samundeswari, D Durga Devi, P Jayakumar and N Jeyapandiyan

Abstract:
Small millets are important climate-smart nutritious crops. Biochemical constituents play an important role in crop growth and development. Understanding the biochemical changes in crops plants at different stages helps to understand their adaptations to extreme climate changes and crop characteristics, their influence on grain yield. In this study, we assessed the biochemical constituents such as soluble protein, proline, nitrate reductase, catalase activity and peroxidase activity at five different growth stages (vegetative, flowering, grain development, grain maturity and harvest) and five small millets (foxtail millet, proso millet, kodo millet, little millet and barnyard millet). The proline accumulation was highest at grain development stage in all the small millets (1.43 to 2.02 mg/g) and was the maximum in barnyard millet. Soluble protein and nitrate reductase activity were the maximum in foxtail millet; both increased from flowering to grain development stages and decreased in later stages. Barnyard millet had the highest catalase activity in all five growth stages, followed by foxtail millet, and the lowest catalase activity was found in little millet across growth stages. Within each crop, a cultivar having high soluble protein, nitrate reductase, proline, and peroxidase activity had higher grain yield, while cultivar with high catalase activity had comparatively low yield, except little millet.