Assessment of Genetic Variability of Three Types of Sorghum Cultivated in Burkina Faso Using Morphoagronomic Quantitative Traits and Brix

Abstract

In Burkina Faso, tree types of sorghum are mainly grown. Despite their genetic proximity revealed by molecular markers, the identification of distinctive agro-morphological traits between sweet grain sorghum, sweet sorghum and grain sorghum could contribute to better management of their genetic resources. Thus, 42 genotypes consisting of the three sorghum types were evaluated in a three replicate Fisher incomplete block design using 20 quantitative traits. The results showed a high variability of traits within each sorghum type and a greater closeness between sweet grain sorghum and sweet stalk sorghum. In addition, nine traits clearly discriminated sweet grain sorghum from the other sorghum types. Sweet grain sorghum expressed the highest values of the sowing-heading cycle, leaf sheath length, stem diameter, productive tillers, and panicle width and the lowest values of mean heading-flowering difference, 100-grain weight, and Brix. Moreover, the ‘sorghum type’ factor is less preponderant than the ‘genotype factor’ in expressing the variability of all traits. Therefore, the 42 genotypes are organized into three genetic groups independently of the sorghum- type factor, where the group I contains all sweet grain sorghum genotypes and three sweet stalk sorghum genotypes. These results could be exploited in sorghum breeding programs.

Heritability, genetic advance, and correlation studies of morpho-agronomic traits and brix in Burkina Faso sweet stalk sorghum genotypes

“…In Burkina Faso, since 2008, many investigations have been undertaken by University of Ouagadougou (current University Joseph Ki-Zerbo) for the sweet stalk sorghum potential. These efforts focused on the characterization of its genetic diversity and the Brix content in the stalk [13][14][15], the evaluation of the photoperiod sensitivity of genotypes [13], and the genetic relationships between this sorghum and other types of sorghum grown [14][15][16]. All of these studies have shown significant genetic diversity within sweet stalk sorghum, high sensitivity to photoperiod, and close genetic proximity among grain sorghum and sweet grain sorghum.…”

Farmers’ Perception of Phenotypic Variation of Different Types of Sorghum Cultivated in Burkina Faso

“…Previous work has highlighted farmers' management methods and genetic diversity within each type of sorghum, including grain sorghum [2] [3] [14], sweet grain sorghum [15] [16] [17] and sweet stem sorghum [6]. Other studies of genetic diversity and comparison of sorghum types at the agromorphological [18] [19] and molecular [20] [21] levels have shown the proximity to its sorghums. However, the impact of the coevolution of the different sorghum types on the organization of the diversity of these sorghums is still unknown in Burkina Faso, which could constitute a limiting factor in the management of its sorghums.…”