A three-year research collaboration effort between the United Sorghum Checkoff Program and DuPont Pioneer has yielded a major new tool for sorghum improvement.
DuPont Pioneer research scientists, led by Cleve Franks and Tanveer Hussain, discovered two sorghum haploid inducer lines. The first of its kind, these patent-pending inducer lines enable the creation of doubled haploid sorghum, which is the first step to significantly accelerating the sorghum breeding process.
“The development of doubled haploid sorghum capabilities represents a major leap forward in sorghum breeding technology,” United Sorghum Checkoff Program CEO Tim Lust said. “This technology provides sorghum breeders with a powerful means of developing higher-yielding sorghum hybrids with the technology our growers need, both in the United States and abroad.”
The United Sorghum Checkoff Program funded the Pioneer research as part of a three-year, $800,220 investment. The research, conducted in Texas, Kansas, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Iowa, leveraged the world-class, global breeding programs of Pioneer.
“The inducer lines discovered by Pioneer will give sorghum breeders the opportunity to create finished inbred parents in a single step,” said Franks, sorghum research scientist, DuPont Pioneer. “This could accelerate the breeding process by potentially cutting the time required to create new hybrids in half.”
