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A Potential Screening System for Identifying Sorghum Ecotypes with Increased Lysine in the Seeds
Author(s) -
Vernaillen S.,
Laureys F.,
Jacobs M.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
plant breeding
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.583
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1439-0523
pISSN - 0179-9541
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0523.1993.tb00645.x
Subject(s) - ecotype , sorghum , germplasm , biology , lysine , agronomy , prolamin , botany , somaclonal variation , horticulture , storage protein , tissue culture , biochemistry , in vitro , amino acid , gene
Classical “high‐lysine” sorghum lines are characterized by smaller seeds than average, due to a decrease in prolamin synthesis and a subsequent decrease in yield. To exploit the natural variation in lysine content and to identify ecotypes with a seed lysine content higher than average, characterized by plump seeds, a method was developed based on root‐growth inhibition of seeds growing on a medium containing aminoethylcysteine (AEC), a lysine analogue. By using a collection of sorghum mutants and ecotypes a correlation coefficient of 0.926 between root length and lysine content was established. This method, which uses the root length of plants growing on aec to indicate which lines have a potential elevated lysine content, can be applied for the screening of sorghum germplasm. Since this is a non‐destructive method it can also be used at the individual seed level, for example for screening progenies of regenerated plants from in vitro culture to exploit the somaclonal variation.