Genetic diversity of sorghum accessions resistant to greenbugs as assessed with AFLP markers

Sorghum, Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench, is the fifth most important cereal crop grown worldwide and the fourth in the United States. Greenbug, Schizaphis graminum (Rondani), is a major insect pest of sorghum with several biotypes reported to date. Greenbug biotype I is currently the most prevalent and most virulent on sorghum plants. Breeding for resistance is an effective way to control greenbug damage. A successful breeding program relies in part upon a clear understanding of breeding materials. However, the genetic diversity and relatedness among the greenbug biotype I resistant accessions collected from different geographic origins have not been well characterized, although a rich germplasm collection is available. In this study, 26 sorghum accessions from 12 countries were evaluated for both resistance to greenbug biotype I and genetic diversity using fluorescence-labeled amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Twenty-six AFLP primer combinations produced 819 polymorphic fragments indicating a relatively high level of polymorphism among the accessions. Genetic similarity coefficients among the sorghum accessions ranged from 0.69 to 0.90. Cluster analysis indicated that there were two major groups based on polymorphic bands. This study has led to the identification of new genetic sources of sorghum with substantial genetic variation and distinct groupings of resistant accessions that have the potential for use in the development of durable greenbug resistant sorghum.