Improving sweet sorghum for enhanced juice traits and biomass

Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) is a prospective bioethanol feedstock source. Four high‐biomass and sweet sorghum male lines and three grain sorghum female lines were intercrossed using Design II mating. Parents and hybrids were evaluated to (a) identify genetic sources to improve biofue...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plant breeding 2020-02, Vol.139 (1), p.131-140
Main Authors: Bandara, Ananda Y., Weerasooriya, Dilooshi K., Gobena, Dereje D., Hopper, Daniel J., Tesso, Tesfaye T., Little, Christopher R., Snowdon, Rod
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agronomy
Biodiesel fuels
bioethanol feedstock
Biofuels
Biomass
Combining ability
Diameters
Ethanol
Fuels
Grain
Heredity
Heritability
Heterosis
Hybrids
Sorghum
Sugar
sweet sorghum
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Summary:Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) is a prospective bioethanol feedstock source. Four high‐biomass and sweet sorghum male lines and three grain sorghum female lines were intercrossed using Design II mating. Parents and hybrids were evaluated to (a) identify genetic sources to improve biofuel traits, and (b) determine the inheritance of biofuel and morpho‐agronomic traits. Total soluble sugars (TSS) per plant were determined using juice weight (JW) and Brix (°Bx). Plant height (PH), biomass (BM) and stalk diameter (SD) were also measured. Mean hybrid performance for PH, JW, TSS and BM was higher than the male parent means. Three male parents exhibited positive and significant general combining ability (GCA) for at least three traits. Among males, PI185672 showed the highest GCA for PH, °Bx and BM, while No. 08 exhibited the greatest GCA for JW and TSS. Most hybrids exhibited overdominance‐driven high‐parent heterosis for all traits except SD. Trait broad‐sense heritability ranged from 0.71 (BM) to 0.93 (PH). Results revealed that biofuel traits could be substantially improved through breeding, which will contribute to enhanced bioethanol production.
ISSN:0179-9541
1439-0523
DOI:10.1111/pbr.12764