Evaluation of Traits’ Performance Contributing to Drought Tolerance in Sorghum

Andekelile Mwamahonje,Tileye Feyissa,Kwadwo Ofori,Santosh Deshpande,John Saviour Yaw Eleblu,Pangirayi Tongoona

doi:10.3390/agronomy11091698

Abstract

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) is an important food crop for people in semi-arid Africa. The crop is affected by post-flowering drought; therefore, the study was conducted to screen traits contributing to drought tolerance using BC2F4 sorghum genotypes in stressed and unstressed water conditions in a split-plot design. Water stress (0 mm/day) was applied at post-flowering to plant maturity in water-stressed treatment. The genotype SE438 produced the highest grain yield (2.65 ton ha−1) in water-stressed environment and NA316C yielded highest (3.42 ton ha−1) under well-watered (7 mm/day) environment. There were significant differences of most traits evaluated at p < 0.01 across environments. The mean squares of traits for genotypes by environments revealed interactions at p < 0.05 and p < 0.01. The indices geometric mean productivity (GMP) and mean productivity (MP) were highly correlated with yield under well-watered (YP) and water-stressed condition (YS) and each other. The first principal axis (PC1) explained 59.1% of the total variation. It is the best indicator of yield potential and drought tolerance of sorghum genotypes in this study. Therefore, further improvement is needed to strengthen drought tolerance and yield in sorghum.

Highlights

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) ranks fifth of the important staple food crops after maize, rice, wheat and barley
The chlorophyll content recorded in all parts of the donor parent B35 and the introgressed genotypes in our study indicates that the donor parent B35 contributed part of the improvement
The interaction of genotypes by environment influenced the performance of various traits

Summary

Introduction

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) ranks fifth of the important staple food crops after maize, rice, wheat and barley. Breeding sorghum for drought tolerance focuses on the incorporation of many traits; for instance, stay green (STG), lower leaf canopy, leaf rolling, and reduced transpiration. These traits are negatively correlated with yield in sorghum during drought stresses [3]. Combinations of different traits contribute to drought tolerance in sorghum; for instance, plants with long root length and root dry weight have higher drought tolerance [11]. Leaf rolling is used as an indicator to identify drought-tolerant plants [12]

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