Recent Advances in Sorghum Genetic Enhancement Research at ICRISAT

Sorghum is one of the most important cereal crops widely grown for food, feed, fodder/forage, and fuel in the semi-arid tropics of Asia, Africa, the Americas and Australia. The global sorghum areas remained static as the increased area in Africa compensated the area loss in Asia. In spite of rapid decline in sorghum area in Asia due to competition from other remunerative crops, sorghum grain production levels have not declined at the same rate owing to adoption of high yielding hybrids. Though impressive gains have been made in improving productivity levels, biotic and abiotic challenges such as shoot fly, stem borer, grain molds, and terminal drought stress continue to haunt the sorghum growers across the world. International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the respec-tive national programs are working on genetic enhancement of sorghum for high yield;shoot fly, and grain mold resis-tance, and sweet stalk traits. In addition, research focus at ICRISAT also includes adaptation to postrainy season, ter-minal drought tolerance, and increasing micronutrient contents (Fe and Zn) in grain. Genetic and cytoplasmic diversi-fication of hybrid parents and varieties for key traits are critical for sustaining the productivity gains. The grain and stover quality requirements of different market segments needs special attention in sorghum improvement research to enhance its market value. This paper analyses the progress made in sorghum improvement research at ICRISAT in partnership with national programs in recent years and the way forward.

Patterns of Molecular Diversity in Current and Previously Developed Hybrid Parents of Pearl Millet [<i>Pennisetum glaucum</i>(L.) R. Br.]

ICRISAT’s pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) breeding program at Patancheru, India, has developed genetically diverse hybrid parents since 1980s. The present study investigated genetic diversity pattern between two groups of parents in this program, bred till 2004 and developed during 2004-2010. Combined analysis of 379 hybrid parents (current 166 parents and 213 previously developed hybrid parents) carried out using a set of highly polymorphic 28 SSRs detected 12.7 alleles per locus. An average of 8.5 and 8.7 SSR alleles per locus were found in previously developed and current parents, respectively, indicating marginal improvement in the levels of genetic diversity of hybrid parents in this program. Distance matrix differentiated these current and previously developed hybrid parents into 2 separate clusters, indicating infusion of new genetic variability over time as reflected by development of more genotype-specific alleles. Also, the seed and restorer parents were found clearly separated from each other in both the sets with few crossovers, indicating existence of two diverse and broad-based pools in hybrid parents of pearl millet. Restorer parents (R-lines) were found more diverse than seed parents (B-lines), as higher average gene diversity was detected among R-lines (0.70) than B-lines (0.56), though variation between B- and R-lines was found reduced in newly developed lines to 9.22% from 16.98% in previously developed lines. Results suggested that newly developed lines were as much divergent when compared with previously developed lines, indicating that current ICRISAT pearl millet breeding program was moving towards development of diverse new hybrid parental lines. The study suggested use of trait-specific donors in B- and R-lines separately to maintain sufficient genetic distance between seed and restorer breeding lines. It was pointed out to cross parents having higher genetic distance within the seed (B-lines) and restorer (R-lines) breeding programs to derive diverse and productive hybrid parental lines in future.

Phenotypic and molecular diversity-based prediction of heterosis in pearl millet(Pennisetum glaucum L.(R.)Br.)

Genetic distances between hybrid parents based on phenotypic traits and molecular markers were investigated to assess their relationship with heterosis for grain and stover yield and other traits in pearl millet(Pennisetum glaucum [L.] R. Br.). Fifty-one hybrids developed using 101 hybrid parents(B and R lines) and showing a wide range of genetic distance between their parents based on eight phenotypic traits and 28–38 SSRs were evaluated in two sets for two seasons. The correlation between Euclidean distance(phenotypic distance, ED) and simple matching distance(molecular distance, SM) for parents of both sets was low but positive and significant(r = 0.2, P < 0.001).The correlation of ED in parents with better-parent heterosis for grain yield was similar in both sets(r =0.38, P < 0.05). SM was not correlated with heterosis for grain yield in either set of hybrids.The results showed that phenotypic distance could be a better predictor of heterosis than molecular distance. The correlation between phenotypic distance and heterosis was not strong enough to permit the use of phenotypic diversity among parents as a major selection criterion for selection of parental lines displaying high levels of heterosis for grain and stover yield in pearl millet.