Inheritance of Resistance to Sorghum Downy Mildew Disease in Maize

Abstract

Sorghum downy mildew (SDM) of maize caused by Peronosclerospora sorghi is a disease of great destructive potential because systemically infected plants seldom produce an ear. Breeding resistant varieties is one of the most effective and cheap methods to control this disease. The genetics of resistance is needed to be studied in any resistance breeding programme. In the present investigation, the inheritance study revealed that resistance was governed by two recessive genes in complementary (9:7) pattern in F2 population of a cross, UMI 79 x UMI 936(w). The resistance behaved as a recessive character to susceptibility. Four SRR primers namely bnlg1035, bnlg420, Phi073 and bnlg1154 were found to be polymorphic between resistant and susceptible parents and they can be further effectively utilized in molecular mapping for SDM resistance. Sorghum downy mildew (SDM) of maize caused by Peronosclerospora sorghi is a disease of great destructive potential because systemically infected plants seldom produce an ear. Breeding resistant varieties is one of the most effective and cheap methods to control this disease. The genetics of resistance is needed to be studied in any resistance breeding programme. In the present investigation, the inheritance study revealed that resistance was governed by two recessive genes in complementary (9:7) pattern in F2 population of a cross, UMI 79 x UMI 936(w). The resistance behaved as a recessive character to susceptibility. Four SRR primers namely bnlg1035, bnlg420, Phi073 and bnlg1154 were found to be polymorphic between resistant and susceptible parents and they can be further effectively utilized in molecular mapping for SDM resistance.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.000670

Pages

63 - 68

Creative Commons

Copyright

© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Madras Agricultural Students' Union in Madras Agricultural Journal (MAJ). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited by the user.

Keywords