Inheritance of the main quantitative traits in sweet sorghum hybrids F₁

¹ Federal State Budget Scientific Institution “Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy” (ARC “Donskoy”), 3, Nauchny Gorodok, 347740, Rostov region, Zernograd, Russia
² Federal State Budget Scientific Institution “North-Caucasian Federal Research Agricultural Center” (NCFRAC), 49, Nikonov Str., 356241, Stavropol region, Shpakovsky district, Mikhaylovsk, Russia

^* Corresponding author: n-beseda@mail.ru

Abstract

Sweet sorghum hybrids F₁ in productivity can surpass the parental forms on 50-60%. Thus the breeding process is aimed to develop first generation hybrids with a strong potential of productivity and quality of green mass and silage. The purpose of the work is to study heritability and heterosis of the quantitative traits of sweet sorghum hybrids F₁ obtained on a sterile basis. The study was conducted in 2013-2015 on the lines with cytoplasmic male sterility (‘A-63’, ‘Knyazhna’, ‘APV-1115), the varieties (‘Listvenit’, ‘Severnoe 44’, ‘Zernogradskoe 454’, ‘Stavropolskoe 36’, ‘Galiya’ and ‘Larets’) and the hybrids. The inheritance of green mass productivity and absolutely dry matter, the length of a vegetation period, plant height and leaf formation (foliage), protein content in dry matter of the hybrids occurred according to the type of dominance and overdominance. It has been determined that while choosing the parental forms for hybridization it’s essential to select the forms with differences in the vegetation period of 4-6 days to avoid the dominance of late maturity. The height pollinator increase results in the hybrid height increase and large heterosis. It’s necessary to select the parental forms with maximum foliage to improve leaf formation in the hybrids.