Kansas ranks first in grain sorghum production with over 4 million acres being planted last year with a total production valued at $ 997.9 million. Greenbugs are important pests of sorghum in Kansas. Direct yield losses from greenbugs or the viral diseases they transmit, average 5-10 bushels per acre, which would result in 10-20 million $ losses to Kansas’s sorghum producers. In our lab, current efforts include identification of greenbug tolerant sorghum lines using chlorophyll loss as an indicator. However, knowledge on the genetic basis for tolerance is lacking. We have crossed greenbug resistant and susceptible breeding lines and progenies of the cross were subsequently selfed for 6 generations to get a mapping population of 88 recombinant inbred lines (RILs). 256 microsatellite (simple sequence repeats or SSRs) molecular markers were screened with the parental lines and 30 new polymorphic markers identified which will be used to map genetic loci conferring tolerance to greenbugs in this mapping population. Once identified, greater resolution of these genetic loci using HIF (heterogeneous inbred family) analysis will help better understand the segregation patterns and greatly aid in marker assisted selection programs for greenbug tolerance in sorghum
Species 1: Homoptera Aphididae Schizaphis graminum (Greenbug)
Keywords: plant resistance, molecular markers
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