Evaluation of sweet sorghum resistance to head smut
Development and introduction of disease-resistant varieties are economically effective and ecologically safe to increase grain production. Therefore modern sorghum breeding aims at obtaining of both high-productive and disease-resistant varieties, including tolerance to head smut. The investigation was done to evaluate the resistance of the sweet sorghum collection to head smut and determine sources of resistance to be used in plant breeding. 200 varieties and lines of domestic and foreign genotypes performed as objects of study. Weather conditions in 2016-2017 were favorable for natural head smut infection, enabling resistance tests to the disease. The highest infection level scored 5. 23.0% or 46 genotypes showed high tolerance to head smut and 26.0% or 52 genotypes had up to 5% of infection in the collection. Genotypes from the USA, India and Eastern Europe were the most tolerant to the disease. Experiments determined 46 highly resistant genotypes, including 28 varieties and lines from Russia. Early season medium-stem parental materials were selected as sources of high resistance to head smut for hybridization. “Zernogradskoe 1/1339”, “Sakharnoe 20”, “Redkolistnoe 1366/1”, “Kapital”, K-179/3, K-918, K-1800/1, K-4573 are valuable genotypes, regarding their productivity, since they have standard leaf surface area and number under shorter growing season.