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Botany, Taxonomy and Breeding

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The Sorghum Genome

Part of the book series: Compendium of Plant Genomes ((CPG))

Abstract

Sorghum is one of the most important cereal crops grown in the semi-arid tropics (SAT) of Asia, Africa, and the Americas for its food, feed, fodder, and fuel value. Sorghum production is constrained by several biotic and abiotic stresses. Genetic enhancement of sorghum for grain and stover yield, nutritional quality, and plant defense traits (abiotic and biotic) that stabilize the crop performance requires thorough knowledge of crop botany, diversity, and genetics so as to deploy appropriate crop-breeding strategies. Sorghum is one of the well-understood species in terms of botany, floral biology, and genetic diversity. Both cultivated and wild forms are available in sorghum, which are well distributed in Africa, its center of origin, and in the rest of the world. This chapter describes the botany, floral biology, and classification of sorghum and their implications to the breeding methods to be used. Also this chapter presents how the understanding of botany and taxonomy can be effectively used for improving sorghum yield and nutritional quality traits.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Program—Asia, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, 502324, Telangana, India

    Are Ashok Kumar

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  1. Are Ashok Kumar
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Correspondence to Are Ashok Kumar .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Millets Research , Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India

    Sujay Rakshit

  2. Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, USA

    Yi-Hong Wang

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Kumar, A.A. (2016). Botany, Taxonomy and Breeding. In: Rakshit, S., Wang, YH. (eds) The Sorghum Genome. Compendium of Plant Genomes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47789-3_2

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