Implementation of Epigenetic Variation in Sorghum Selection and Implications for Crop Resilience Breeding.

ABSTRACT: Crop resilience and yield stability are complex traits essential for food security. Sorghum bicolor is an important grain crop that shows promise for its natural resilience to drought and potential for marginal land production. We have developed sorghum lines in the Tx430 genetic background suppressed for MSH1 expression as a means of inducing de novo epigenetic variation, and have used these materials to evaluate changes in plant growth vigor. Plant crossing and selection in two distinct environments revealed features of phenotypic plasticity derived from MSH1 manipulation. Introduction of an epigenetic variation to an isogenic sorghum population, in the absence of selection, resulted in 10% yield increase under ideal field conditions and 20% increase under ext

SUBMITTER: Ketumile D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8828589 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature