Exploitation of Hybrid Vigor for Identification of Promising Sorghum F1 Hybrid for High Grain Yield and Resistance to Sorghum Midge

Massaoudou Hamidou,Mahamadou Salifou,Malick N Ba,Vernon Gracen,Eric Yirenkyi Danquah,Kwado Ofori,Issoufou Kapran,Oumarou Souleymane,Isabel Marques

doi:10.1155/2020/8853501

Abstract

Sorghum is the second most grown cereal crop in Niger. However, sorghum production in the country is dominated by indigenous cultivars with low productivity. Productivity in grain sorghum has been achieved in developing countries around the world using hybrids. This study was conducted to evaluate heterosis in F1 sorghum hybrids for grain yield and resistance to midge. Fifty F1 sorghum hybrids were evaluated for grain yield and resistance to midge. Variation for grain yield, midge resistance, and flowering time was observed. The magnitude of better parent heterosis for grain yield and resistance to midge varied significantly among hybrids. Four hybrids combined high better parent heterosis for both grain yield and resistance to midge while eight hybrids were better than their better parent for resistance to midge. These hybrids performed well for grain yield and/or resistance to midge. Therefore, the parental lines involved in these hybrids can be advanced for commercial hybrids production or used in sorghum improvement programs.

Highlights

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is a tropical cereal crop grown in a wide range of environments where it plays an important role as a staple food for several millions of people all over the world
Experimental Materials. e experimental materials consisted of fifty F1 hybrids generated using line by tester mating design and two local checks. e hybrids were obtained by crossing 25 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) onto two male-sterile midge-resistant lines. e inbred lines used as male parents were F1-4 lines developed from a cross between a local sorghum variety (MDK) and an exotic sorghum midge-resistant cultivar from ICRISAT (ICSV88032) using the single-seed descent breeding method (SSD). e male-sterile lines were TX640 from Texas A&M University, USA, and QL33 from Queensland University, Australia
Testers were significantly different for all the study traits except midge damage. e magnitude of mean squares indicates that crosses were different for grain yield, midge damage, and flowering time (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is a tropical cereal crop grown in a wide range of environments where it plays an important role as a staple food for several millions of people all over the world. Grain sorghum yields are very low, about 0.280 tons/ha, which is far below the genetic potential of the crop in countries such as USA (4.3 tons/ha), Argentina (4.9 tons/ ha), and China (3.2 tons/ha) [1]. Losses due to sorghum midge are known to vary over seasons and locations, but are thought to approximate 10–15% of the world sorghum crop production [4]. In Niger, according to Amadou [5], sorghum midge appears in the field around mid-September to early October when sorghum is flowering, thereby causing serious damage to sorghum yield. Ese data clearly indicate that local sorghum varieties grown in Niger Yield reduction of about 55.8% to 67.3% was recorded in the country by Kadi Kadi et al [6]. ese data clearly indicate that local sorghum varieties grown in Niger

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion