Abstract
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is the fifth important cereal considered a drought-tolerant crop. However, its reduction of grain yield considerably occurs in a shortage of water. In the current study, 10 sorghum genotypes were assessed for their grain yield under normal irrigation and water deficit irrigation. As well, the efficacy of several drought indices was evaluated for the selection of high-yield and drought-tolerant genotypes. The experiment was conducted as a split-plot considering three irrigation levels as main-plot and 10 genotypes as sub-plot. Correlation among the indices, clustering of the genotypes along with principal component analysis was employed. Yield production was significantly and positively correlated with indices MP (mean productivity), STI (stress tolerance index), GMP (geometric productivity), HM (harmonic mean), and YI (yield index) in all the irrigation levels. Therefore, these indices are more effective in the selection of high-yielding genotypes under different water conditions. Rank means of stress indices for each genotype revealed that genotype TN-04-79 in mild deficit irrigation and genotypes KGS23 and TN-04-79 in severe deficit irrigation were the most tolerant.
Highlights
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is a C4 and drought-tolerant crop used for food, feed, and fiber (Ludlow et al, 1990)
Low values indicate more stability under deficit irrigation High values are more desirable Values < 1 are more tolerant High values indicate more tolerant High values are more desirable High values are more desirable High values indicate more tolerant High values indicate more stability under normal and deficit irrigation Low values indicate more suitable for deficit irrigation description Kc: water requirement coefficient changing with the growth stages of sorghum; ETo: the reference evapotranspiration of plant under specified conditions measured by pan evaporation. crop production per unit volume of water; high values are more desirable
We evaluated 10 sorghum genotypes for drought tolerance collected from different parts of Iran and kept at The National Plant Gene-Bank of Iran, SPII
Summary
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is a C4 and drought-tolerant crop used for food, feed, and fiber (Ludlow et al, 1990). Despite the lack of information on drought tolerance mechanisms, researchers have proposed the utility of different selection indices to screen drought-tolerant genotypes (Anwaar et al, 2019). We have employed the following selection criteria for screening drought-tolerant genotypes and introducing the best indices. Several indices based on the yield under control (Yp) and stress (Ys) have been introduced for the selection of drought-tolerant genotypes. The indices employed in various stress conditions are stress tolerance (TOL) and mean productivity (MP) introduced by Rosielle and Hamblin (1981), Stress susceptibility index (SSI) by (Fischer and Maurer, 1978), stress tolerance index (STI) and geometric mean productivity (GMP) by Fernandez (1992), Harmonic mean of yield (HM) by Jafari et al (2009), yield index (YI) by Gavuzzi et al (1997), yield stability index (YSI) by Bouslama and Schapaugh (1984), yield reduction ratio (YRR) by Golestani-Araghi and Assad (1998). The study aimed to investigate the efficiency of the mentioned indices for screening tolerant genotypes of sorghum to drought stress
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