Description of a Novel Allelic “Thick Leafed” Mutant of Sorghum

Abstract

An allelic sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] mutant with thick and narrow erect leaves (Thl) and reduced adaxial stomatal density was isolated from the Annotated Individually pedigreed Mutagenized Sorghum mutant library developed at the Plant Stress and Germplasm Development Unit at Lubbock TX. The mutant, Thl, was isolated from a pedigreed M3 family generated by ethyl methanesulfonate mutagenization from an elite inbred sorghum line, BTx623, which had been used to sequence the sorghum genome. The mutant has been backcrossed to the wild-type BTx623 confirming that the trait results derive from a stable recessive nuclear gene mutation. Herein, we briefly described morphological and selected physiological characteristics of this mutant sorghum.