Influence of different types of sterile cytoplasms (A3, A4, 9E) on the combining ability of CMS lines of sorghum.

Investigation of the effect of the cytoplasm on the combining ability (CA) of lines with cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) is of considerable interest in terms of understanding the genetic functions of the cytoplasm and for practical purposes to create hybrids with improved economically valuable traits. In order to investigate the effect of different types of sterile cytoplasm (A3, A4, 9E) on CA in sorghum, we studied the manifestation of a number of biological and agronomic traits in 54 F1 hybrid combinations obtained using iso-nuclear CMS lines with the nuclear genome of the line Zheltozernoye 10, differing only in the types of sterile cytoplasm (A3, A4 and 9E). Eighteen varieties and lines of grain sorghum developed at the Russian Research and Project-technological Institute of Sorghum and Maize were used as paternal parents.