Title: Identification of Striga resistance QTLs regions in some wild sorghum accessions
Authors: Mohamed Elkhawad, Hamad, M. A. A., Yasir Gurafi and Abdalla. H. Mohamed
Volume: 9
Issue: 3
Pages: 152-166
Publication Date: 2025/03/28
Abstract:
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench.) is one of the most important cereal crops in the semi-arid areas. S. hermonthica is widely distributed and causes serious damage to sorghum and millets the main staple food crops in Sudan. Different control strategies for the parasite were developed, but they were either expensive or complex for farmers to afford or adopted. Striga resistant sorghum genotypes can be developed through hybridization or gene introgression between wild and cultivated sorghum. Sorghum wild relatives are recognized as the main genetic resource for novel genes to tackle intractable problems. The present study aimed to identify the QTLs regions in wild sorghum accessions resistant to Striga using SSR markers. The present study was undertaken to identify Striga resistance QTL in nine wild sorghum accessions. Sixteen identified SSR markers associated with Striga resistance in five QTL regions were used to screen wild accessions. Four QTLs were found in wild accession WSB-2, three QTLs in WSA-1 and WSA-4, two QTLs in WSB-1 and WSB-3 and a single QTL in WSA-3 and WSD-1. Results indicated that wild sorghum relatives showed not only strong heritable Striga resistance but also different resistance mechanisms from those in cultivated sorghum. This will definitely lead to a durable resistance and with advances in genomics, can lead to cloning of resistance genes for future inter/ intra specific gene transfer.