Location: Plant Stress and Germplasm Development Research
Project Number: 3096-21000-024-004-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jan 15, 2021
End Date: Jan 14, 2025
Objective:
The research proposed herein will coordinate hybrid sorghum evaluation activity between three existing public sorghum breeding programs and one of the few remaining companies dedicated to sorghum genetic improvement. The goal of this work is to develop a collaborative public/private research program to improve the productivity and adaptation of grain sorghum hybrids for U.S. farmers. The specific objectives are to: 1) identify commercially competitive sorghum hybrid cultivars that result from combination of parents from different programs; 2) provide a direct path for the commercialization of these elite hybrids through private industry partner; and 3) develop the groundwork for long-term and sustainable commercialization activity of inbred lines produced by the public sector (which is essential for the long-term viability of the sorghum industry).
Approach:
The goal of this work is to develop a collaborative public/private research program to improve the productivity and adaptation of grain sorghum hybrids for U.S. producers.
To meet this goal, we will develop a set of sorghum hybrids that engage elite lines from each of the four programs for evaluation. The evaluation and analysis of the data generated from this structured mating will be used to meet the specific objectives described below.
Within this project, each of the four programs will identify four seed parent and four pollinator parent lines that have established performance within their specific hybrid testing program. Based on this contribution, a 16 x 16 factorial mating design will be developed in which each seed parent will be hybridized to all 16 pollinator parents. A total of 256 hybrids will be produced. To distribute the work and facilitate germplasm transfer, each group will be responsible for producing the hybrids using their pollinator parents using male-sterile versions of the seed parent provided by each group.
