http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/11762 2021-03-24T04:38:53Z info:eu-repo/semantics/descriptiveMetadata http://oar.icrisat.org/11762/ Novel sources of drought tolerance from landraces and wild sorghum relatives Ochieng, G Ngugi, K Wamalwa, L K Manyasa, E Muchira, N Nyamongo, D Odeny, D A Drought Tolerance Sorghum Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) is the fifth most important cereal crop worldwide and second aftermaize (Zeamays L.) in Kenya. It is an important food security crop in arid and semi-arid lands, where its production potential is hampered by drought. Drought tolerance can be measured by a plant’s ability to resist premature senescence, often described as stay-green. This study was carried out with the objective of identifying novel stay-green trait among wild and landrace genotypes of sorghum. Forty-four sorghum genotypes that included 16 improved, nine landraces, and 17 wild relatives of sorghum alongside known stay-green sources, B35 and E36-1, were evaluated under well-watered and water-stressed conditions in an alpha-lattice design of three replications. Data was collected on plant height (PHT), flag leaf area (FLA), panicle weight (PWT), 100-seed weight (HSW), relative chlorophyll content (RCC), number of green leaves at maturity (GLAM), days to 50% flowering (DFL), and grain yield (YLD). Genetic diversity was determined using diversity arrays technology (DArT) sequencing and quality control (QC) markers were generated using a java script. Lodoka, a landrace, was the most drought-tolerant genotype, recorded the highest numbers of RCC and GLAM, and outperformed B35 and E36-1 in yield under water-stress and well-watered conditions. The RCC was highly correlated with GLAM (r = .71) and with yield-related traits, HSW (r = .85), PWT (r = .82), and YLD (r = .78). All traits revealed high heritability (broad-sense) ranging from 60.14 to 98.4% for RCC and DFL, respectively. These results confirm earlier reports that wild relatives and landraces are a good source of drought tolerance alleles. Crop Science Society of America 2020-11 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://oar.icrisat.org/11762/1/csc2.20300.pdf Ochieng, G and Ngugi, K and Wamalwa, L K and Manyasa, E and Muchira, N and Nyamongo, D and Odeny, D A (2020) Novel sources of drought tolerance from landraces and wild sorghum relatives. Crop Science (TSI), 61 (1). pp. 104-118. ISSN 0011-183X https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20300 doi:10.1002/csc2.20300 info:eu-repo/semantics/objectFile info:eu-repo/semantics/humanStartPage