PJB-2023-563
FIELD-BASED EVALUATION OF SWEET SORGHUM GERMPLASM TO UNVEIL MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
Abdullah Bin Umar
Abstract
Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is an emerging C4 crop species exploited for its grain, fodder and bio-ethanol purposes. It is recognized as an advanced biofuel feedstock, possessing climate smart attributes like abiotic stress tolerance, low input needs and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. To develop effective breeding program for sweet sorghum in Pakistan, the information on adaptation to local environments, genetic relationships and diversity of sweet sorghum accessions is vital for the identification of better breeding parents. The study used a panel of 200 sweet sorghum accessions obtained from the USDA’s worldwide collection for genetic diversity estimation. Eight quantitative traits were evaluated under field conditions for two years. Extensive phenotyping and morphological characterization indicated the presence of significant genetic diversity within the germplasm. High variability was reported in plant height (113.00–321.33 cm), fresh weight (570.67–1058.00 g), dry weight (235.0–450.33 g), and stem thickness (4.00–22.33 mm). A high broad-sense heritability was shown by all the observed quantitative traits. The major 5 principal components having Eigen value (>1) shared 80.09% variability of traits among the genotypes. The correlation analysis showed that plant height was positively correlated with the number of leaves and fresh weight. Days to flowering and days to maturity were also seen to be in strong positive correlation with each other. Cluster analysis classified the genotypes into two classes based on the homology. The explored genetic potential of sweet sorghum collection can be helpful in varietal development and improvement programs. Moreover, this diverse set of sweet sorghums can be evaluated through genome-wide association mapping by using molecular markers for molecular selection of promising genotypes with improved agronomic and quality traits.
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