Sorghum as a Novel Crop for Central Europe: Using a Broad Diversity Set to Dissect Temperate-Adaptation

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is a promising novel crop for Central Europe. However, enhancements in cold tolerance and early maturity are essential for a successful adaptation to cooler climates. We scored a broad sorghum diversity set (n = 338) for early chilling tolerance, high-latitude adaptation, and bioenergy related agronomical traits in multi-environment trials. Our results show a high phenotypic variation and medium to high heritabilities for most traits, indicating that a robust breeding progress is feasible. Several public accessions with a good adaptation to cooler climates were identified, which can serve as valuable base material for sorghum breeding in temperate areas. Genome-wide association studies reveal a polygenic (quantitative) character for most of the traits, confirming previous studies. Hence, for practical breeding, it will be difficult to conduct efficient marker-assisted selection for temperate-adaptation traits in genetically diverse material.