Evaluation of Biological Control of Sorghum Strains Using Bacillus Thuringiensis and Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Under Drought Stress

Abstract

Background: Sorghum is an economically significant staple food crop for more than half a billion people in developing nations, especially in arid and semi-arid locations where drought stress is a significant limiting factor. Despite usually being regarded as tolerant, sorghum suffers severely from drought stress, which lowers its productivity and nutritional quality throughout its principal cultivation areas. Objective: Improvements in DNA fingerprinting by ISSRs, SSRs, and RAPD markers have also been employed in sorghum genetic modification (GMOs) to enhance the economic characteristics of this crop. Materials and methods: To provide a natural defence against pests, the most tolerant plants among the seven varieties of sorghum bicolour were selected and planted in the second season of 2020–2021 under treatment with two microorganisms, B. thuringiensis and P. aeruginosa. This study considered seven varieties of sorghum bicolour planted under 50% water deficiency in 2019–2020. Genetic variability analysis of sorghum genotypes was performed using seven Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) primers, six Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) primers, and five Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers. Seven Sorghum bicolour accessions were collected from various regions of Egypt and their phylogenetic relationships were evaluated. Additionally, DNA fingerprinting and analyses of the genetic diversity and evolutionary linkages in the sorghum germplasm employed the (ISSR) molecular marker technique. Results and conclusion: The Fisher Least Significant difference test (LSD) at P < 0.05, based on RAPD, ISSR, and SSR markers demonstrated a significant connection. The findings demonstrated that 51 bands with a size range of 100–1500 bp and polymorphism percentage of 72.5% were created using five RAPD primers. Seven ISSR primers generated 45 bands With a 57.8(%) polymorphism percentage, ranging in size from 100 to 3000 bp. six SSR primers generated 28 bands with (67.86%) polymorphism percentage of 67.86 %, ranging in size from 100 to 1500 bp. Morphological characteristics and ISSR, SSR, and RAPD analyses were used to group the UPGMA Dendrogram into groups. Jaccard's coefficient was used to analyse the genetic similarity matrix. The maximum similarity was observed for ISSR between Hybrid Sh1 and Hybrid Sh306 (0.984%), SSR between Hybrid Sh306 and Sudan grass (0.964%), and RAPD between Giza 15 and Indian Millet (0.706%). The classification of sorghum germplasm, breeding initiatives, and conservation efforts rely heavily on the determination of the genetic diversity among sorghum species. Identification of genetic variants, morphological features, and genetic analysis of ISSR, SSR, and RAPD are useful techniques. These findings demonstrate a large ratio of variation in sorghum. This work could serve as a guide for future research on sorghum and aid in the understanding of species and breeding initiatives.