Utility of Passport Data from Plant Germplasm Collections for Selecting Sorghum Accessions for Use in Breeding Nurseries.

Due to limited passport data on most accessions from plant germplasm collections, the information available must be used as efficiently as possible.  The objective of this study was to determine whether any relationships between the passport data of the accessions and their selection for future breeding use existed.  In 2007, approximately 1700 exotic sorghum accessions from the USDA’s National Plant Germplasm System which were listed to be from 19 different countries were screened in College Station, TX for potential use as parental lines in high biomass sorghum hybrids.  Identifying significant relationships between the passport data of exotic sorghum accessions and their selection for breeding use could be used to prioritize accessions from specific regions for screening in a breeding nursery.  Data was also collected on height, stem diameter, lodging, and early-season visual desirability ratings to measure their relationships to selection.  Highly significant differences for selection between the accession countries of origin were found in ANOVAs.  In addition, correlation analyses identified lodging as the measured trait with the strongest correlation to selection.  Further understanding of these relationships will be obtained with the repetition of this experiment in 2008 across two locations.