Kaiwen Liang

Agri-Products Application Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resouces, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China
Author    Correspondence author
Field Crop, 2025, Vol. 8, No. 2   
Received: 14 Jan., 2025    Accepted: 18 Feb., 2025    Published: 01 Mar., 2025

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This study aims to enhance heterosis in sorghum by utilizing male sterile lines, including the evaluation of the combining ability and heterosis of various sorghum lines, to identify hybrids that exhibit superior performance in terms of grain yield, biomass production, and other agronomic traits. The study revealed significant genotype, location, and genotype × location interaction effects for most traits, indicating mixed performances of the tested genotypes, which allows for further selection. Both general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) effects were significant for most traits, including grain yield and anthracnose resistance, suggesting the involvement of both additive and non-additive gene actions. Hybrids derived from cytoplasmic male sterile lines exhibited higher brix, greater stalk yield, and higher sugar content compared to their male-fertile counterparts. Additionally, hybrids showed significant positive heterosis for grain Fe and Zn concentrations, which is crucial for biofortification efforts. The study identified several high-GCA effect germplasm, such as AMP418, AMP431, AMP434, AMP443, AMP495, AMP496, and the male line X097, which hold promise for accelerating the genetic improvement of sorghum for dual-purpose use. The findings underscore the potential of using male sterile lines to enhance heterosis in sorghum. The identified superior hybrids and parental lines can be utilized in breeding programs to improve grain yield, biomass production, and nutritional quality, thereby contributing to food security and biofuel production.

Sorghum; Heterosis; Male sterile lines; Combining ability; Grain yield; Biomass; Biofortification; Cytoplasmic male sterility