QTLs in Sweet by Grain Sorghum RILs.

Sweet sorghum is an up and coming crop of interest in the world of bioenergy, but there are few cultivars developed yet for this purpose.  This process is hindered by high lodging, influential environment, and labor intensive phenotyping.  The objectives of this project are to find QTLs (Quantitative Trait Loci) that are linked to traits in sweet sorghum, which in turn can be used to more effectively select for traits through marker assisted breeding.  The RIL (Recombinant Inbred Line) population used is derived from the parents BTx3197 and Rio, grain and sweet sorghums respectively, and it is this mosaic of widely diverse traits in the population that will help to identify the significant QTLs.  The phenotypic data from this research shows that there is a significant difference between traits in the RILs.