U.S. flagAn official website of the United States government
                    Here's how you know **Official websites use .gov**
                            
                            A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
 **Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**
                            
                            A **lock** (                            
                              A locked padlock                                                      
                            
                            ) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Menu Agricultural Research Service
						
                    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 Tropical Crops and Germplasm Research: Mayaguez, PR
 close



    Research

                    Research Projects
                                    Publications
                                    Collaborations
                                    News
                People

                    Staff Listing
                                    Careers


        


                    Research Projects
                        Conservation and Utilization of Tropical and Subtropical Tree Fruit, Cacao and Bamboo Genetic Resources
                                    Enhancement of Sorghum Genetic Diversity for Disease Resistance and Key Agronomic Traits
                                    Genetic Improvement of Stress Tolerance in Common Bean through Genetic Diversity and Accelerated Phenotyping
                                    Seed Increase, Evaluation, and Phytosanitary Assessment of Quarantined and Tropically-adapted Genetic ResourcesSearch small
                    Search
            
            ARS Home
                                About ARS
                                Contact Us




ARS Home Southeast Area Mayaguez, Puerto Rico Tropical Crops and Germplasm Research Research





- Cuevas, Hugo
- 2023
- 2022
- 2021
- 2020
- 2019
- 2018
- Publications
- Plant Genetic Resources, Genomics and Genetic Improvement (301)

Research Project: **Location:
                            Tropical Crops and Germplasm Research** Project Number: 6090-21000-058-000-D
                        
                        Project Type: In-House Appropriated Start Date: Mar 12, 2018
                        
                        End Date: Mar 11, 2023 **Objective:**
                        
                        1. Phenotype exotic sorghum germplasm for important agronomic traits to identify the most valuable accessions for sorghum breeding programs.
1a. Genetically-characterize sorghum accessions from the West-Central African diversity panel (WCADP). 
1b. Phenotypically-characterize highly genetically diverse sorghum accessions from the WCADP.
1c. Phenotypically-characterize accessions from NPGS sweet sorghum germplasm. 

2. Identify new sources of anthracnose and grain mold resistance through the evaluation of exotic sorghum germplasm from the National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) sorghum germplasm collection for further introgression breeding.
2a. Identify new sources of host-plant resistance to anthracnose in the WCADP.
2b. Identify new sources of host-plant resistance to grain mold in the WCADP. **Approach:**
                        
                        The focus of this research is to use genotypic and phenotypic characterization of National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) sorghum germplasm to identify new sources of resistance to anthracnose and grain mold in exotic germplam. A total of 396 accessions from West-Central Africa countries will be characterized for host-plant resistance to both diseases followed by genetic characterization through genotype-by-sequence analysis. This information will be combined with phenotypic and genotypic characterization data from sorghum association panels and core subsets from the NPGS Ethiopian and Sudan collections to conduct a large genome wide association analysis. The results will discover new sources of disease resistance and identify novel molecular markers for breeding programs seeking disease resistance. Presently, sweet sorghum varieties utilized as a biofuel source have a narrow genetic base. Therefore, evaluation of sweet sorghum accessions present in the NPGS sorghum collection will be carried out to help to identify new germplasm to broaden genetic variability available for the development of new biofuel varieties of sorghum. For this purpose, a subset of NPGS sweet sorghum germplasm with high Brix values will be characterized for biofuel related traits in conjunction with a subset of the sorghum bioenergy association panel.


Return to top


Connect with ARS Sign up


ARS Home
                            USDA.gov
                            Plain Writing
                            Policies & Links
                            Civil Rights Statements
                            FOIA
                            Accessibility Statement
                            Privacy Policy
                            Non-Discrimination Statement
                            Quality of Information
                            USA.gov
                            WhiteHouse.gov