Sorghum breeding for abiotic stress tolerance

Description

Sorghum is a major global crop for food, feed and biofuel. Globally, domesticated sorghum is often grown on marginal lands and in environments exposing the plant to temperature extremes and water deficits. Although sorghum exhibits better abiotic stress tolerances than many crops, significant sorghum yield losses are experienced annually in response to unfavourable environments. This chapter focuses on methods for identifying diversity among germplasm collection. It then shows ways of exploiting germplasm diversity to improve soybean responses to low temperature and water-deficit stress.

Table of contents

1 Introduction 2 Exploiting genetic diversity: cold tolerance 3 Exploiting genetic diversity: drought tolerance 4 Identifying QTL for post-flowering drought tolerance 5 Case studies in improving drought tolerance 6 Summary 7 Where to look for further information 8 References