The sorghum germplasm collection at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is reviewed. The characteristics of the five basic races of sorghum, (bicolor, guinea, caudatum, kafir and durra) are described, and their usage discussed. The geographical distribution of the five basic races and ten intermediate races is tabulated by country. This shows that racial divergence in sorghum is related to geographic origin. The genebank at ICRISAT currently conserves 36?774 accessions from ninety countries with the basic races durra, caudatum and guinea representing 21.8, 20.9 and 13.4% of the collection, respectively

Rao, K E P

Rao, N K

Reddy, B V S

Reddy, V G

ICRISAT Open Access Repository

Sorghum Research ReportsGermplasmGeographic Distribution of Basic and Inter-mediate Races in the World Collection ofSorghum GermplasmV Gopal Reddy1 N Kameswara Rao1,Belum V S Reddy1, and K E Prasada Rao2( 1 . International Crops Research Institute for theSemi-Ar id Tropics ( ICRISAT) , Patancheru 502 324,Andhra Pradesh, India; 2. Dabha Gardens, NearJupiter Lodge, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India)Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is of tropicalor ig in, but it has also been adapted through selection totemperate regions. It is the staple food of many people inAf r ica , Asia and is a major feed crop in Argentina,Austral ia, Mex ico, South A f r i ca and the USA. It wasprobably domesticated in northeastern Af r ica , in an areaextending f rom the Ethiopian-Sudanense border to Chad(Doggett 1970; de Wet et al. 1976). From this area, itspread to India, China, the Midd le East, and Europe.Sorghum is an immensely variable genus and issubdivided into f ive sections Chaetosorghum, Hetero-sorghum, Parasorghum, Stiposorghum and Sorghum (deWet 1978). The sorghum section includes cultivated grainsorghum, a complex of closely related annual taxa f romAfr ica, and a complex of perennial taxa from southernEurope and Asia. The range of genetic variabi l i tyavailable in cult ivated races and their w i l d relatives isextensive, and the extreme types are so different as toappear to be separate species (Prasada Rao and Mengesha1988). Al though collection and conservation of geneticresources of sorghum attracted the attention of botanistsand breeders about three decades ago, they have becomeincreasingly important in recent years due to thereplacement of many landraces wi th genetically uni formvarieties and hybrids, and the large-scale destruction ofnatural habitats of w i l d and weedy relatives by urbaniza-t ion and industrialization (Prasada Rao and RamanathaRao 1995).The genebank at the International Crops ResearchInstitute for the Semi-Ar id Tropics ( ICRISAT) currentlyconserves 36,774 accessions assembled from 90 countries(Table 1). As and when received, new sorghumgermplasm accessions characterized for 23 morpho-logical and agronomic traits dur ing postrainy seasons atICRISAT, Patancheru, India between 1974 and 2002.Fo l lowing Harlan and de Wet (1972), and based on theinflorescence and spikelet characters that are most stableand least influenced by the environment, the germplasmaccessions maintained at ICRISAT are classified into f ivebasic races; Bicolor, Guinea, Caudatum, Kaf i r , and Durraand ten intermediate races; Guinea-bicolor, Caudatum-bicolor, Kaf ir-bicolor, Durra-bicolor, Guinea-caudatum,Guinea-kafir, Guinea-durra, Kafir-caudatum, Durra-caudatum, and Kafir-durra. These races have thefo l low ing characteristics:Bicolor: grain elongate, sometimes sl ightly obovate,nearly symmetrical dorso-ventrally; glumes clasping thegrain, which may be completely covered or exposed asmuch as ¼ of its length at the t ip.Guinea: grain flattened dorso-ventrally, sublenticular inout l i lne, twis t ing at maturi ty nearly 90 degrees betweengaping involute glumes that are from nearly as long tolonger than the grain.Caudatum: grain markedly asymmetrical, the side nextto the lower glume flat or in extreme cases evensomewhat cancave, the opposite side rounded andbulging: the persistent style often at the t ip of a beakpoint ing toward the lower glume; glumes of the length ofgrain or less.Kafir: grain approximately symmetrical, more or lessspherical: glumes clasping and variable in length.Durra: grain rounded obovate, wedge-shaped at the baseand broadest sl ightly above the middle; glumes very wide,the t ip of a different texture f rom the base and often wi th a transverse crease across the middle.Table 1. Proportion of v arious races and intermediateraces based on 35652 s orghum germplasm accessionsin I C R I S A T genebankRaces/Intermediate races Number of accessions % Bicolor 1443 4.05Caudatum 7448 20.89Caudatum-bicolor 1416 3.97Durra 7788 21.84Durra-bicolor 2336 6.55Durra-caudatum 4304 12.07Guinea 4781 13.41Guinea-bicolor 333 0.93Guinea-caudatum 3388 9.50Guinea-durra 219 0.61Guinea-kafir 106 0.30Kafir 1274 3.57Kafir-bicolor 136 0.38Kafir-caudatum 404 1.13Kafir-durra 276 0.77Total 35652 100.00ISMN 43,2002 15In general, race Bicolor includes pr imit ive foragesorghums wi th sweet stems. Kaf i r sorghums provideimportant staple food across the eastern and southernsavanna from Tanzania to South Afr ica. Mostcommercial ly important male-sterile lines are derivedfrom Kaf i r landraces as they are insensitive tophotoperiod, a relatively unusual trait. Guinea sorghumsare the oldest specialized group, which are mostlyphotoperiod sensitive, resistant to grain mold , and grownpr imar i ly in West Afr ica. Caudatum sorghums are of mostrecent or ig in, and are used for brewing traditional opaquebeers in East Af r ican countries. Durra and Caudatumsorghums are widely used in crop improvement programsin Asia and Kaf i r in Southern Afr ica. Most of the present-day cultivars under cult ivation in tropical countries arederived from Caudatum landraces. In this paper, wesummarized the composition of the germplasmmaintained at ICRISAT, and the distr ibution of itscomponent races and intermediate races across variouscountries in the wor ld .The collection assembled at ICRISAT ispredominantly represented by the basic races; Durra(21.8%), Caudatum (20.9%,), and Guinea (13.4%).Among the intermediate races, Durra-caudatum (12.1%),Guinea-caudatum (9.5%), and Durra-bicolor (6.6%) arerepresented (Table 1). Al though ICRlSAT's sorghumgermplasm collection originated from 90 countries, forthe purpose of this analysis, only countries where thenumber of accessions were 100 or more were considered.The analysis revealed that three countries namely; India,Uganda, and Zimbabwe are represented by all the fivebasic and ten intermediate races. USA, Zambia, and IndiaTable 2. Countrywise distribution of sorghum races and intermediate racesCountry B1C CB D DB DC G GB GC GD GK K KB KC K D TotalBenin 1 2 1 2 184 4 3 197Burkina Faso 7 4 9 23 5 7 414 5 68 2 544Burundi 107 3 4 1 3 3 2 12 1 136Cameroon 11 1313 34 364 20 275 202 37 219 2 2477China 21 231 152 9 16 85 1 5 41 1 7 31 17 6 623Ethiopia 149 401 125 1870 1063 457 15 10 191 10 6 2 3 10 4312India 344 142 113 3575 543 380 773 25 144 56 1 12 10 6 34 6158Kenya 26 748 27 5 6 38 10 1 103 2 1 1 968Lebanon 18 30 51 23 13 142 2 2 36 12 17 12 2 360Lesotho 4 8 7 1 1 2 1 63 9 103 4 60 6 269Malawi 5 19 13 5 1 8 258 19 59 13 1 401Mali 13 26 11 70 35 42 473 8 14 1 1 694Niger 14 32 51 63 43 100 34 6 62 3 408Nigeria 34 231 60 63 52 265 657 97 186 17 4 3 5 1 1675Rwanda 2 220 1 44 1 19 2 1 290Senegal 3 2 6 10 2 5 190 2 19 239Sierra Leone 107 107Somalia 11 424 I 3 2 441South Africa 25 189 63 14 3 24 22 2 23 2 455 9 49 22 902Sudan 83 992 124 228 47 310 42 10 510 27 23 11 39 2 2448Tanzania 12 106 16 50 5 17 373 9 96 7 2 2 4 699Togo 3 9 4 11 1 1 244 4 17 294Uganda 38 1269 34 15 14 42 34 3 227 2 2 20 3 6 11 1720USA 321 317 156 139 49 267 69 21 177 12 64 235 42 110 70 2049Yemen 11 121 32 330 221 1339 1 1 90 8 2 1 5 2162Zambia 22 52 50 3 1 10 86 6 128 1 1 1 361Zimbabwe 13 238 68 74 10 110 256 10 535 19 10 149 3 27 45 1567Total 1180 6818 1212 7418 2154 3953 4451 289 3027 195 89 1036 120 343 216 325011. B=Bicolor; C = C a u d a t um; C B =Caudatum-bicol or; D = Durra; D B = D u r ra-bico lor; DC=Durr a-cauda tum; G =Guine a; G B=Guinea-bicolor;GC=Guinea-c audatum; GD= Guin ea-durra ; GK=G uinea-ka fir; K = Kafir; KB= Kaf i r -bicolor; K C = K afir-caudatum; K D = K a fir-durr a16 ISMN 43, 2002are dominated by race Bicolor; West Af r ican countriesincluding Sierra-Leone, Benin, Togo, Senegal, BurkinaFaso, Ma l i , Ma law i , and Tanzania by Guinea; EastAfr ican countries by Caudatum; the southern Afr icancountries South Af r ica , Lesotho, Zimbabwe by Kaf i r ; andSomalia, India and Ethiopia by Durra. Among theintermediate races, the majori ty of the Caudatum-bicoloraccessions are f rom China, Lebanon, Zambia, and Niger;Durra-bicolor form Ethiopia, Niger, Yemen, and India;Durra-caudatum from Yemen, Lebanon, Niger, Nigeria,China, USA, Sudan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe;Guinea-caudatum from Zambia, Z imbabwe, Lesotho,Sudan, Niger, Ma law i , Tanzania, Uganda, Burkina Faso,and Nigeria, and Kafir-caudatum from Lesotho, and SouthAfr ica (Table 2).Natural selection for adaptation to environment andfarmer's preference for specific uses or specific croppingsystems is known to have accounted for most of themorpho-agronomic diversity in crops. This analysis revealsthat racial divergence in sorghum is related to geographicor igin and this enables breeders to narrow down theirsearch to meet breeding objectives and germplasmcollectors to target specific geographic areas for specificraces.ReferencesDoggett, H. 1970. The history of cultivated sorghum. Pages 40-43in Sorghum. London, UK: Longmans, Tropical Agricultureseries, Longman Scientific and Technical, USA.Harlan, J.R. and de Wet, J.M.J. 1972. A simplified classifica-tion of cultivated sorghum. Crop Science 12: 172-176.Prasada Rao, K.E., and Mengesha, M.H. 1988. Sorghumgenetic resources - Synthesis of available diversity and its utili-zation. Pages 159-169 in Plant Genetic Resources IndianPerspective: Proceedings of the National Symposium on PlantGenetic Resources, 3 6 March 1987, New Delhi, India (Paroda,R.S., Arora, R.K., and Chandel, K.P.S., eds.). New Delhi, India:National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources.Prasada Rao, K.E. and Ramanatha Rao, V. 1995. The use ofcharacterization data in developing a core collection ofsorghum. Pages 109 115 in Core collection of plant geneticresources. (Hodgkin, T, Brown, A.H.D., van Hintum, Th.J.L.,and Morales, E.A.V., eds.). Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.de Wet, J.M.J. 1978. Systematics and evaluations of sorghumsect. Sorghum (Gramineae). American Journal of Botany 65:477-484.de Wet, J.M.J., Harlan, J.R., and Price, E.G 1976. Variabilityin Sorghum bicolor. Pages 453-464 in Origins of African PlantDomestication. (Harlan, J.R., de Wet, J.M.J., and Stemler,A.B.L., eds.). The Hague, Netherlands: Mountain Press.Sorghum Germplasm Collection fromDrought-Prone Areas of Southern Maha-rashtraA V Umakanth1, B Prabhakar2, and M Elangovan1( 1 . National Research Centre for Sorghum (NRCS),Rajendranagar, Hyderabad 500 030, Andhra Pradesh,India; 2. Centre for Rabi Sorghum (CRS),Solapur 413 001 , Maharashtra, India)IntroductionSorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench], the second largestgrain crop in India unti l the Green Revolution, presentlyoccupies the third place in terms of area sown and f i f thplace in production amongst the food grains. Postrainy-season (rabi) sorghum is unique to India in that it isgrown on residual soil moisture. It is a major cereal of thedrought-prone areas and is grown over 5.89 mi l l ionhectares, primari ly in the states of Maharashtra, Kamataka,and Andhra Pradesh. Postrainy-season sorghum is a majorsource of food and fodder and an important component ofthe dryland economy of these states, particularly inMaharashtra, where 75% of the total area cultivated in thepostrainy season is under this crop. The major constraintsrestricting yield improvement are drought on medium-to-shallow soils, shoot f ly (Atheri-gona soccata Rondani),charcoal rot (Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) G Goid)and cold. The present exploration was undertaken tocollect germplasm in the drought-prone areas ofMaharashtra, so that it could be used in breedingprograms for resistance to both biotic and abiotic stresses.Materials and methodsThe National Research Centre for Sorghum (NRCS),being the National Act ive Germplasm Site (NAGS) forsorghum, has been identif ied to explore, collect,characterize and evaluate sorghum germplasm under theNational Agricultural Technology Project (NATP) onRainfed Nutri-t ious Production System 10 (RNPS-10).The NRCS has previously undertaken explorations in thedrought-prone areas of Maharashtra to collect diversesorghum germ-plasm. This exploration was undertaken tosupplement the previous collections of Gopal Reddy et al.(1993; 1996) and Elangovan and Prabhakar (2001).Previous collectors observed that there was considerablevariabi l i ty in post-rainy-season sorghum in Maharashtrawhere missions targeted the districts of Buldana, Jalgaon,Dhule, Aurangabad, Jalna, Parbhani, Beed, Satara andISMN 43.2002 17

Geographic distribution of basic and intermediate races in the world collection of sorghum germplasm

http://oar.icrisat.org/1622/1/ISMN43_15-17_2002.pdf

Geographic distribution of basic and intermediate races in the world collection of sorghum germplasm

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

ICRISAT Open Access Repository