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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Mayaguez, Puerto Rico » Tropical Crops and Germplasm Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #404041
Research Project: Enhancement of Sorghum Genetic Diversity for Disease Resistance and Key Agronomic Traits

Location: Tropical Crops and Germplasm Research

Title: Assessment of grain protein in tropical sorghum accessions from the NPGS germplasm collection

Author
item Cuevas, Hugo
item Peiris, Kamaranga
item Bean, Scott

Submitted to: Agronomy
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/3/2023
Publication Date: 5/10/2023
Citation: Cuevas, H.E., Peiris, K.H., Bean, S.R. 2023. Assessment of grain protein in tropical sorghum accessions from the NPGS germplasm collection. Agronomy. 13, 1330. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13051330.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13051330

Interpretive Summary: The development of sorghum varieties with higher nutrition is necessary to alleviate malnutrition worldwide. Therefore, 228 tropical sorghum accessions were evaluated for protein content for three years using a near-infrared scanning instrument. A total of 16 tropical accessions showed high protein content (>12.8%) which could be used in crop improvement programs to develop more nutritional varieties. This study demonstrated the existence of genetic variation for protein content in tropical sorghum germplasm which could be used by breeding programs focused on biofortification.

Technical Abstract: The development of higher nutritional sorghum varieties requires the identification of high protein content germplasm that expands the genetic diversity of breeding programs. Therefore, a near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy method was developed to predict protein content of whole grain sorghum with R2 = 0.83, root-mean-square error of prediction = 1.44% and bias = 0.16%. A total of 228 tropical accessions from West and Central African countries maintained by the National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) of United States were evaluated for protein content for three years. The analysis found that the protein content among accessions varied from 5.05% to 15.00% with an average of 10.24%. Correlation analysis between years reveled changes in protein content and ranking across years for multiple accessions. However, the heritability of protein content was moderately high (H2 = 0.81) indicating most of the observed variation could be determined by genetic differenced among accessions. A total of 16 tropical accessions showed the highest protein content (>12.84%) which could be used in breeding programs for the development of new higher nutritional varieties. This assessment demonstrated the existence of natural variation for protein content in NPGS sorghum tropical germplasm collection that could be used to enhance breeding programs focused on biofortification.