Abstract
Sorghum, a major crop for income generation and food security in West and Central Africa, is predominantly grown in low-input farming systems with serious soil phosphorus (P) deficiencies. This study (a) estimates genetic parameters needed to design selection protocols that optimize genetic gains for yield under low-phosphorus conditions and (b) examines the utility of introgressed backcross nested association mapping (BCNAM) populations for diversifying Malian breeding materials. A total of 1083 BC1F5 progenies derived from an elite hybrid restorer “Lata-3” and 13 diverse donor accessions were evaluated for yield and agronomic traits under contrasting soil P conditions in Mali in 2013. A subset of 298 progenies were further tested under low-P (LP) and high-P (HP) conditions in 2014 and 2015. Significant genetic variation for grain yield was observed under LP and HP conditions. Selection for grain yield under LP conditions was feasible and more efficient than the indirect selection under HP in all three years of testing. Several of the BCNAM populations exhibited yields under LP conditions that were superior to the elite restorer line used as a recurrent parent. The BCNAM approach appears promising for diversifying the male parent pool with introgression of diverse materials using both adapted Malian breed and unadapted landrace material from distant geographic origins as donors.
Highlights
Sorghum is one of the most important crops for smallholder farmers in West Africa who annually cultivate 14.1 million ha, approximately half of African and one-third of world production area of sorghum [1]
The overall mean grain yield under LP conditions (116 g m−2 ) was just slightly over half of the level obtained under HP (277 g m−2 ) in 2013 (Table 3)
Our study showed that introgression of some sorghum accessions from that region can create useful variation for grain yield under LP conditions, as exhibited by the Soumb, Ribda, and Samba populations, whereas other donors did not, with the SK591 and Fara populations having inferior yields (Table 7)
Summary
Sorghum is one of the most important crops for smallholder farmers in West Africa who annually cultivate 14.1 million ha, approximately half of African and one-third of world production area of sorghum [1] This cereal crop is produced in low-input farming systems [2,3,4] in which soil phosphorous. Genetic variation occurs for yields under low P-fertility [6] and requires appropriate statistical designs to reliably determine grain yield in low-P fields [6]. These findings were based on a group of pure-line varieties that do not represent the situation when selecting in elite segregating materials for developing superior hybrid parents
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