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ARS Home » Plains Area » College Station, Texas » Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center » Insect Control and Cotton Disease Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #419923
Research Project: Molecular and Genetic Approaches to Manage Cotton and Sorghum Diseases

Location: Insect Control and Cotton Disease Research

Title: Association and interrelationship among agronomic traits and fungal diseases of sorghum, anthracnose and grain mold

Author
item Prom, Louis
item Ahn, Ezekiel
item Cuevas, Hugo
item Liu, Jinggao
item ISAKEIT, THOMAS - Texas A&M University
item MAGILL, CLINT - Texas A&M University

Submitted to: Crops
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/29/2024
Publication Date: 12/5/2024
Citation: Prom, L.K., Ahn, E.J.S., Cuevas, H.E., Liu, J., Isakeit, T.S., Magill, C.W. 2024. Association and interrelationship among agronomic traits and fungal diseases of sorghum, anthracnose and grain mold. Crops. 4(4):651-666. https://doi.org/10.3390/crops4040045.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/crops4040045

Interpretive Summary: Anthracnose and grain mold are two of the most important fungal diseases of sorghum, resulting in world-wide economic losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars on an annual basis. Our previous research revealed that sorghum lines with certain agronomic traits tended to be less impacted by these fungal diseases. Thus, a total of 82 sorghum cultivars were planted in Isabela, Puerto Rico, to determine the effect of sorghum plant height, panicle length, seed weight, and germination rate on fungal disease response. The results showed several significant associations between some of the agronomic traits and the impact of anthracnose and grain mold on sorghum yield and quality. The work is significant because it shows that selecting and developing cultivars with certain agronomic traits could reduce the impact of these two fungal diseases on sorghum production.

Technical Abstract: Anthracnose and grain mold are two of the most significant diseases of sorghum, a versatile crop that plays an important part in the daily lives of millions of inhabitants, especially in the drier tropical regions. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of four agronomic traits in selected sorghum germplasms on the two diseases using Spearman's test to identify significant pairwise correlations. Both anthracnose and grain mold scores were significantly and negatively correlated with seed weight and germination rate. Grain mold infection score also demonstrated negative correlations with plant height (Spearman = -0.61 & p-value = <0.0001) and panicle length (Spearman = -0.27 & p-value= 0.0022). In this investigation, principal component analysis and clustering variables analysis revealed that seed weight and germination rate exhibited a directional alignment, suggesting a positive association. Similarly, panicle length and plant height cluster together, suggesting a shared variation pattern. Additionally, a support vector machine model effectively predicted the germination rate based on the studied traits, highlighting the potential of machine learning in understanding complex trait relationships in sorghum. This work provides insights into the relationship between agronomic traits and disease resistance, thus contributing to sorghum improvement efforts.