Inheritance of Low Phytate in Africa Biofortified Sorghum

Sorghum is an important food crop in Northern Nigeria. Although, sorghum is highly valued for its hardiness and drought tolerance, but as with most staples, phytic acid an antinutrient inhibits the bioavailability of micronutrients such as iron and zinc leading to micronutrient malnutrition on populations who depend on it as a dietary source. The present study was conducted to study the inheritance of the phytate content in Africa Biofortified Sorghum and to assess the nature of gene action involved in its inheritance. This was done by crossing a transgenic sorghum (ABS188) and a non- transgenic sorghum (SAMSORG 17) to generate F¬¬1, F¬2, BC1P1¬ and BC1P2. Field evaluation was conducted at the confined field trial (CFT), Samaru in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with two replications. Observations were recorded on ten characters and analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the six generations. Estimates of gene effect showed that additive, additive x additive and additive x dominance gene effect are important in the inheritance of phytate level in Africa Biofortified Sorghum. Both additive and non-additive gene effects are essential for the yield improvement in sorghum and breeding strategies like reciprocal recurrent selection would satisfy the breeding objectives.