Abstract
Abstract Sorghum, the fifth most important cereal crop globally, faces persistent threats from fungal diseases that limit productivity and resilience. To investigate the genetic basis of disease resistance and geographic adaptation, we applied a machine learning-enabled genome-wide association study (GWAS) to a panel of 377 genetically diverse sorghum accessions, incorporating nearly 300,000 SNP markers and phenotypic evaluations for resistance to anthracnose, head smut, and downy mildew. While disease resistance phenotypes did not cluster strictly by geographic origin, SNP-based analyses revealed significant genetic differentiation among accessions from different regions, particularly involving a genetically distinct group from Senegal. Bootstrap Forest models highlighted candidate SNPs predictive of geographic origin, most notably on Chromosome 10, near genes encoding transcription factors (e.g., bHLH, EREBP-like) and DUF6598-domain proteins with potential roles in plant defense. For disease resistance, top-ranked SNPs were located near genes implicated in canonical immune pathways, including zinc-binding proteins (anthracnose), NB-ARC and LRR-containing proteins (head smut), and F-box proteins (downy mildew). Although exploratory in nature, these findings suggest that local adaptation to pathogen pressure may have shaped sorghum’s genomic landscape. The identified candidate genes and associated SNPs help prioritize targets for marker-assisted selection and follow-up functional validation, contributing to the development of sorghum varieties with enhanced resistance and adaptability.
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The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 7
Claim · model-written summary
Disease resistance phenotypes of the sorghum panel did not cluster strictly by geographic origin.
SorghumOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“sorghum”
e0“disease resistance phenotypes did not cluster strictly by geographic origin”
Claim · model-written summary
SNP-based analyses revealed significant genetic differentiation among sorghum accessions from different regions, particularly a genetically distinct group from Senegal.
- Material
- accessionse0
- Outcome
- genetic differentiatione0
- Qualifier
- genetically distinct group from Senegale0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“sorghum”
e0“SNP-based analyses revealed significant genetic differentiation among accessions from different regions, particularly involving a genetically distinct group from Senegal”
Claim · model-written summary
Bootstrap Forest models highlighted candidate SNPs predictive of geographic origin, most notably on Chromosome 10 near transcription factor genes (bHLH, EREBP-like) and DUF6598-domain proteins.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“sorghum”
e0“Bootstrap Forest models highlighted candidate SNPs predictive of geographic origin, most notably on Chromosome 10, near genes encoding transcription factors (e.g., bHLH, EREBP-like) and DUF6598-domain proteins”
Claim · model-written summary
For anthracnose resistance, top-ranked SNPs were located near genes encoding zinc-binding proteins.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“sorghum”
e0“top-ranked SNPs were located near genes implicated in canonical immune pathways”
e1“zinc-binding proteins (anthracnose)”
Claim · model-written summary
For head smut resistance, top-ranked SNPs were located near genes encoding NB-ARC and LRR-containing proteins.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“sorghum”
e0“top-ranked SNPs were located near genes implicated in canonical immune pathways”
e1“NB-ARC and LRR-containing proteins (head smut)”
Claim · model-written summary
For downy mildew resistance, top-ranked SNPs were located near genes encoding F-box proteins.
- Interactor
- downy mildewPeronosporaceaee1pathogen
- Gene
- F-box proteinse1
- Outcome
- top-ranked SNPse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“sorghum”
e0“top-ranked SNPs were located near genes implicated in canonical immune pathways”
e1“F-box proteins (downy mildew)”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors suggest, as an exploratory finding, that local adaptation to pathogen pressure may have shaped the sorghum genomic landscape.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“local adaptation to pathogen pressure may have shaped sorghum’s genomic landscape”