Genotypic variation in sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] exotic germplasm collections for drought and disease tolerance

By the end of the 21^st century, global surface temperatures are predicted to increase in the range of +1.4 to +5.8°C (IPCC 2007). Increased drought frequency is an important characteristic of predicted climate change and is the most important yield limiting abiotic stress worldwide (Araus et al. 2002; Meehl et al. 2007). Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) originated in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is a major food crop in arid and semi-arid regions of the world (Balota et al. 2008). Although sorghum has a wide range of adaptability and can be grown in a wide series of environments, including heat, drought, salinity and flooding (Ejeta and Knoll, 2007), this crop is usually affected by water stress at both pre- and post-flowering stages of development and has the most adverse effect on yield during and after anthesis (Tuinstra et al. 1997; Kebede et al. 2001; Blum 2004). Post-flowering drought stress reduces the number and size of the seeds per plant (Rosenow and Clark 1995) by 36 and 55%, respectively, which are the main causes for lower grain yield in sorghum (Assefa et al. 2010).

Due to its polygenic nature, drought tolerance is a complex trait. Drought is highly influenced by environmental conditions which makes breeding selection cycles difficult at pre- and post-flowering stages in sorghum (Tuinstra et al. 1996). However, progress in developing drought tolerant genotypes through breeding efforts is tremendous. Secondary component traits with moderate to high heritability values under drought stress include stay green, chlorophyll content, chlorophyll fluorescence, canopy temperature and transpiration efficiency (Harris et al. 2007; Kumar et al. 2008; Roháček et al. 2008; Liu et al. 2010; Kapanigowda 2011; Mutava et al. 2011; Talebi 2011). Improving these traits can increase drought tolerance potential in sorghum (Prasad et al. 2006; Borell et al. 2010). Kapanigowda (2011) observed high broad-sense heritability (0.77 to 0.90) for transpiration efficiency in sorghum and showed this trait could be improved through breeding. Mutava et al. (2011) studied diversity for chlorophyll content, leaf temperature, chlorophyll a fluorescence (PS II quantum yield), harvest index (HI) and yield among 300 genotypes from different races of sorghum and reported wide variability in sorghum.

Post-flowering drought stress is associated with charcoal rot and Fusarium stalk rot disease which leads to significant lodging and yield loss (Rosenow and Clark 1995; Tesso et al. 2004). However, the disease severity is high under hot and humid conditions (Tesso et al. 2012). Stalk rot is characterized by degradation of pith tissue near the base of the stalk as a result of senescence of the stalk pith cells (Tesso et al. 2012) resulting in reduced transportation of nutrients and water, and breakage of the stalk at the zone of infection causing lodging (Hundekar and Anahahosur 1994). Charcoal rot of sorghum is caused by Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid. and is a serious problem under high soil temperature and low moisture by a prolonged dry period, particularly during the grain filling stage (Hassan et al. 1996). Fusarium stalk rot (caused by Fusarium spp.) is more severe when drought and high temperature stress occurs during grain development followed by wet, cool conditions near physiological maturity (Tesso et al. 2012). Several studies have been conducted to understand the influence of drought stress (Diourte et al. 1995; Seetharama et al. 1991; Tenkouano et al. 1993), nitrogen and plant growth (Cloud and Rupe 1994) and inheritance of resistance to Fusarium spp. and M. phaseolina. Seetharama et al. (1991) reported high incidence of charcoal rot and low grain yield in drought stressed sorghum plants. However, there was little attempt to identify genotypes in exotic germplasm collections that might serve as potential resistance sources to Fusarium stalk and charcoal rot for breeding programs. Even though drought and disease stresses commonly occur in sorghum production environments (Rosenow et al. 1996), there is little information on the interaction of drought on disease severity and drought tolerance in exotic sorghum germplasms. Of the total (44,773) accessions in the world sorghum germplasm collections, only 9,889 (22%) are photoperiod insensitive which are extensively used in breeding programs. The available genetic resources in sorghum are still under unexploited for diseases and drought stress tolerance (Rosenow and Dahlberg 2000). Thus, it is necessary to screen genotypes under both irrigated and dryland conditions to document environments that favor disease development. Evaluation of new germplasm based upon secondary traits that are associated with drought and disease tolerace is of paramount importance.. In the present study, 44 plant introductory (PI) and 84 minicore photoperiod insensitive germplasm accessions were evaluated along with 12 adapted lines. We hypothesized that there is genetic variation among the PI lines and sorghum minicore germplasm for post-flowering drought stress, Fusarium stalk rot (F. thapsinum) and charcoal rot (M. phaseolina) resistance. Identifying potential sources with post-flowering drought tolerance traits will combat disease development and result in increased grain yield. This study was conducted with the following objectives: (i) evaluate and identify sorghum exotic germplasm for drought, Fusarium stalk rot, and charcoal rot tolerance, and (ii) to identify traits confering tolerance to drought and stalk rots diseases.

The present study showed wide genetic variability among the sorghum genotypes for drought and disease tolerance, which provides more opportunities for effective selection. Post-flowering drought stress significantly increased chlorophyll loss and decreased PS II quantum yield in all the genotypes (Table 2). The reduction in chlorophyll content and PS II quantum yield activities under drought stress could be due to thylakoid membrane damage caused by increased production of reactive oxygen species (Tambussia et al. 2000). Enzymes involved in chlorophyll biosynthesis are bound to membranes (Tewai and Tripathy 1998); and dilation of thylakoids by drought stress can also cause chlorophyll loss (Bukhov et al. 1999). Drought stress decreased PS II quantum yield indicating increased permeability of thylakoid membranes resulting in proton leakage across the thylakoid membrane which decreases ATP and NADPH production and decreased photochemical efficiency (Schrader et al. 2004). Miyashita et al. (2005) found that PS II quantum yield level was decreased in kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) due to drought stress, suggesting reduction in electron transfer to photosystem II. Mutava et al. (2011) observed similar results in grain sorghum genotypes. In the present study, genotypes PI264451 and PI267109 had increased chlorophyll content, and IS28451 and RTx7000 had increased PS II quantum yield under dryland condition (Additional file 2: Table S1). The above-mentioned genotypes can be used in drought tolerance breeding for introgression of the stay green trait.

Seversike et al. (2012) showed that air temperature altered transpiration responses to vapor pressure deficit (VPD). Controlled transpiration rate under moisture limited condition shows drought tolerance in crop plants. Under environments where VPD is high, genotypes having limited transpiration rate may yield more due to significant water savings. Leaf temperature is positively correlated with transpiration rate and can be of a surrogate measure for drought tolerance. Our data showed that genotypes RTx7000 and PI475432 had increased leaf temperature (42 to 41°C) in the dryland environment with slightly higher grain yield (30 to 34 g plant^-1) relative to the other genotypes. Since, RTx7000 is a non-stay green-genotype, it contrasts with the finding of Jordan et al. (2012) that the stay-green trait may result from decreased water use early in the season, allowing water to be conserved to sustain a longer period of grain filling. However, it confirms to the finding of Choudharya et al. (2013) that genotypes expressing the breakpoint in transpiration rate with increasing VPD were found among both stay-green and non-stay-green genotypes. However, the genotype PI570895 had a leaf temperature of 36°C and grain yield of 43 g plant^-1 (Additional file 2: Table S3) indicating that this genotype may have availed more soil moisture and cooled the canopy favors higher grain yield (Table 3). This type of genetic variability was also observed by Mutava et al. (2011) on sorghum. Similar extreme variation was observed by Gholipoor et al. (2010) among sorghum genotypes in transpiration response to vapor pressure deficit (VPD). They identified seventeen sorghum genotypes exhibiting a breakpoint in their VPD response in the range from 1.6 to 2.7 kPa, above which there was little or no increase in transpiration and concluded the possibility of soil water conservation upon utilizing these genotypes. Overall, considering leaf temperature, chlorophyll content, and PS II quantum yield, genotypes PI510898, IS1212, PI533946, PI550590, IS2872 and PI562166 may have drought tolerance ability as evidenced by higher grain yield under dryland conditions (Additional file 2: Table S3). Repeatability estimates for SPAD, PS II quantum yield, plant height, days to flowering, lesion length for Fusarium stalk rot, charcoal rot and grain yield were moderate to higher for both environments (Additional file 2: Tables S1 and S2). These repeatability estimates indicated that these traits can be improved through selection as this tool quantifying the extent to which one trait’s performance remains consistent over environments.

Growing environment significantly affected Fusarium stalk rot. The weather during the cropping season was characterized by intermittent rainfall and high temperature stress early in the season. However, later in the season wet and cool weather was followed by dry conditions (Additional file 1: Figure S1), which favors disease development (Tesso et al. 2012). Under dryland condition, moisture stress later in the season was associated with significantly lower lesion length compared to the irrigated environment (Table 4). These results were consistent with the results reported earlier by Tesso et al. (2004), which showed that lower mean disease score was due to lack of adequate late season moisture in sorghum. Significant differences in mean lesion length were noted between genotypes (Table 4). These differences are assumed to reflect differences in disease susceptibility of the genotypes through mobilization of stalk carbohydrate reserves to developing seed during grain development (Tesso et al. 2012) rather than differences in host defense responses. Because of lost reserves, the stalk tissue might become senescent earlier to favor stalk and charcoal rot infection. Lower lesion lengths for both stalk rot and charcoal rot inoculation were observed in the genotype IS30562 and 1790E R, respectively under the dryland environment. The common susceptible sources for both diseases were IS12706 with high mean lesion length under the dryland condition (Table 5). Similarly, IS59519 and PI562166R were tolerant to Fusarium stalk rot and KS19R and IS22294 were tolerant to M. phaseolina rot under irrigated conditions (Table 6). The genotypes IS30533 and IS33844 were found to be susceptible to Fusarium stalk rot and charcoal rot under irrigated conditions (Table 6).

BTx399, a stay-green line showed a high degree of tolerance to M. phaseolina, with low lesion length relative to other adapted lines, (Tuinstra et al. 1996; Xu et al. 2000; Kebede et al. 2001). This line was also drought tolerant and Fusarium stalk rot resistant (Tao et al. 1993). This may be due to the retention of a higher proportion of assimilates in the stem by stay green lines later in the growing season (Seetharama et al. 1991). Tesso et al. (2004) reported that SC599 shows high level of resistance to F. proliferatum, and it can be used as a potential source of resistance to both Fusarium stalk rot disease and charcoal rot. Tenkouano et al. (1993) also reported that B35, which is a close relative of SC35 and SC599 and their hybrids showed high levels of resistance to M. phaseolina. These results indicate that stalk resistance in SC599 and B35 are different and cannot be equated (Tenkouano et al. 1993). The simplest explanation for these differences is that different genes are involved in regulating stalk rot resistance in these two genetic backgrounds (Tesso et al. 2005). Similarly, BTx399 may also have a different genetic background, which governs the resistance to Fusarium stalk rot and charcoal rot.

PCA on drought related traits revealed that PC1and PC2 accounted 34.5% and 14.3% of the total variability respectively. Further, PCA revealed a significant negative correlation between days to flowering and HI. This makes sense since late flowering results in a shorter grain filling period in sorghum, where the duration of the reproductive stage is fixed (Barnabas et al. 2008). In this study, plant height exhibited significant positive correlation with days to flowering (r = 0.37, P < 0.0001) and negative correlation with harvest index (r = −0.56, P < 0.0001). A similar relationship was observed in earlier studies by Murray et al. (2008), Ritter et al. (2008) and Zhao et al. (2009) in sorghum. These authors concluded that taller sorghums have the advantages of accumulating more biomass due to greater translocation of photosynthates from the vegetative tissues resulting in late maturity and low grain yield. Also, some tall sorghums may be prone to lodging, which results in low harvest index (Rooney 2004; Murray et al. 2009). Genotypes of this group may utilize the available soil water for vegetative development, leaving no moisture for the grain filling stage concomitant with lower current photosynthesis during post-flowering stages and decreased grain yield. A significant positive association was observed between chlorophyll content under dryland and HI under both environments. Richards (2000) suggested that increased photosynthetic rate through improved leaf chlorophyll content can improve grain productivity and HI of the genotype. Leaf temperature had lower negative values of PC2 in both environments and chlorophyll content and PS II quantum yield had positive values. This clearly indicates that genotypes with extreme leaf temperatures (>35°C) might experience damage to leaf photosynthetic apparatus and chlorophyll loss (Djanaguiraman et al. 2011).

PCA on combined drought and disease related traits showed positive correlation between PS II quantum yield, chlorophyll content and HI indicating these traits are associated with drought and disease tolerance (Nazir Mir et al. 1998). However, these have to be verified using proven disease tolerant and susceptible genotypes under controlled and field experiments. Plant height was positively correlated with lesion length indicating that disease development is directly proportional to plant height which was also confirmed by component loading value (Bazzalo et al. 1991). Genotypes PI267109, IS12706, PI533916, BTx3042 and PI291382 were separated from others and showed increased PS II quantum yield (0.74 to 0.77), SPAD (50 to 60) and HI (0.30 to 0.47) with early maturity (61 to 66 days to flowering) under dryland condition (Additional file 2: Table S3). Likewise, genotype IS24463 showed increased tolerance to both pathogens. Combined PCA analysis of drought and disease related traits clearly indicated that chlorophyll content, PS II quantum yield and HI can be used as a screening index for post-flowering drought and disease tolerance (Figure 3). The aforementioned sources can be used to develop potential lines for post-flowering drought tolerance, Fusarium stalk and charcoal rot resistance.

Wide variability was observed between the genotypes for chlorophyll content, PS II quantum yield and leaf temperature as well as HI and Fusarium stalk rot and charcoal rot lesion length and grain yield in the sorghum minicore germplasm. Genotypes PI510898, IS1212 and PI533946 showed increased grain yield; modest values of chlorophyll content, PS II quantum yield, and leaf temperature; and early maturity under dryland conditions. Genotypes IS14290, IS12945 and IS1219 showed greater susceptibility to drought with lower grain yield and HI along with late maturity. Genotype IS24463 expressed a high degree of tolerance to both Fusarium stalk rot and charcoal rot and IS12706 and IS16151 were highly susceptible based on mean lesion length and grain yield under dryland conditions. Lesion length and grain yield were negatively correlated with chlorophyll content, PS II quantum yield and HI under both diseases indicating that higher pathogen infection resulted in lower plant health and reduced grain yield. Genotype PI510898 showed combined tolerance to drought and Fusarium stalk rot under dryland conditions. The aforementioned genotypes can be a potential sources for improvement of drought and disease tolerance in future sorghum breeding.