All India Co-ordinated Sorghum Improvement Project, IARI Regional Research Station, Hyderabad-500030
2present address: Assistant Wheat Breeder, Department of Plant Breeding, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.
1Part of the IARI Ph.D. thesis of the first author.
Variability and nature of gene action in the inheritance of nutritional attributes, viz., protein, 18 aminoacids, β-carotene and yield attributes, viz-, yield per plant, seed size and grain hardness and the association between nutritional and yield characters were studied in a diallel mating system involving 10 parents representing exotic, Indian and derived lines of sorghum.
Viewed against the FAO protein pattern and in the light of recent discovery of high lysine sorghums, there is adequate variability for essential aminoacids and β-carotene in the genus sorghum. Protein, lysine, threonine, tryptophan and β-carotenen, grain yield, seed size and grain hardness are predominen-tly additive in inheritance. The positive associations of lysine, methionine and β-carotene with grain yield offer opportunities for recombining high yields with high nutritional quality.
