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ARS Home » Plains Area » College Station, Texas » Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center » Crop Germplasm Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #207199
Title: Chinese sorghum germplasm evaluated for resistance to downy mildew and anthracnose

Author
item Prom, Louis
item Erpelding, John
item MONTES-GARCIA, NOE - INIFAP/MEXICO

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/5/2007
Publication Date: 3/9/2007
Citation: Prom, L.K., Erpelding, J.E., Montes-Garcia, N. 2007. Chinese sorghum germplasm evaluated for resistance to downy mildew and anthracnose. Communications in Biometry and Crop Science. 2:26-31.

Interpretive Summary: Downy mildew and anthracnose are serious fungal diseases of sorghum which can reduce the crop yield and quality, especially in areas where these diseases occur regularly. For downy mildew and anthracnose, the use of host resistance offers the best means of control in the long run for sorghum production to be profitable. This work screened 40 Chinese sorghum lines for downy mildew and anthracnose resistance. No downy mildew disease was noted on six of the 40 sorghum lines tested. However, 33 out of the 40 sorghum lines tested were infected with anthracnose. Four sorghum lines were resistant to anthracnose. Within the Chinese sorghum collection, it may be possible to identify lines resistant to these two diseases. Since the majority of the Chinese lines can flower at any time of the year, resistance genes from these new sources could be more readily placed into our advance U.S. breeding lines for sorghum improvement.

Technical Abstract: Forty Chinese sorghum accessions maintained by the USDA-ARS, Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Unit, Griffin, Georgia were evaluated for multiple disease resistance. The level of downy mildew infection ranged from 0 to 100% with systemic infection and local lesions development observed for infected plants. No downy mildew infection was noted on six accessions (PI 511832, PI 563519, PI 563521, PI 563850, PI 610677 and PI 610724). Thirty-three of the 40 sorghum genotypes tested were susceptible to anthracnose. Four accessions (PI 430471, PI 563905, PI 563924 and PI 563960) were uniformly resistant to anthracnose. None of the Chinese accessions evaluated exhibited resistance to both diseases. Since resistance was observed for anthracnose and downy mildew within the Chinese germplasm collections, additional screening of the collection may result in the identifications of accessions conferring resistance to multiple diseases to enhance sorghum improvement.