Perennial sorghum breeder The Land Institute Salina, Kansas
Body of Abstract: Annual agriculture is responsible for several local, regional, and global ecosystem disservices, such as soil erosion, soil degradation, aquatic eutrophication, and greenhouse gas emissions. Perennial grain crops have the potential to transform annual agriculture from a destructive to a beneficial provider of ecosystem services while simultaneously enhancing food production. Perennial cover, according to estimates, reduces nitrogen losses and maintains topsoil 30-50 times better than annual crops. It is also attractive for both mechanized and smallholder agriculture. In terms of utilization, perennial grains are very similar to annual grains, but they still need some agronomic modifications. We breed perennial sorghum to combine the high yield of elite sorghums, which has been achieved through a century of scientific breeding, with the environmental benefits of perenniality and multiple harvests from a single planting obtained from Sorghum halepense. Previously, we phenotyped, genotyped, and mapped BC-F2 populations derived from the cross between S. bicolor and S. halepense and identified quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with perenniality and seed yield. The identified QTLs were compared to previously published QTLs for the same or comparable traits from the Sorghum QTL Atlas or rhizome QTLs from other rhizomatous sorghum populations. Over 95% of the QTLs for seed weight, grain yield per panicle, and grain yield per plant identified in these BC-F2 populations overlapped with previously published QTLs. Several rhizome QTLs identified in these BC-F2 populations overlapped those identified in two S. bicolor and S. propiquum populations, indicating that these QTLs are valid and can be used in future molecular breeding efforts. We are investigating additional novel traits, such as disease resistance, that could be derived from wild perennial sorghum species in order to improve conventional grain and/or forage sorghum. Crop wild relatives still have a lot of untapped genetic diversity that could be used for crop improvement.