Genomic Approaches for Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Sorghum

Abstract

Although sorghum is a crop grown under harsh environments, its productivity is adversely affected by various abiotic stresses including drought, temperature extremes, low fertility, and mineral toxicity among others. In recent years a large number of genetic and genomic resources have become available in sorghum, which provide researchers opportunities to relate sequence variations with phenotypic traits of interest and their utilization in sorghum improvement programs. The application of the molecular marker and genomic technologies has shown promise for efficient breeding. However, very few successful examples are available in the public domain of research in this direction. Some of these successes specifically related to application of molecular marker technologies for improving abiotic stresses are explained in this chapter. With recent advances in next-generation sequencing technologies and high-throughput phenotyping platforms/technologies, utilizing the new/advanced mapping populations such as nested-association mapping (NAM), backcross-derived NAM has shown great potential. These recent advancements will be the drivers for integration of genomics technologies in routine breeding programs in the immediate future.