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Diseases cause enormous losses of yield and quality for crop producers worldwide. To meet future food demands, crops are bred for resistance to as many of these maladies as possible. One su...

Anthracnose is a major disease of sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]. Breeding for stable host plant resistance to this disease has been difficult due to the variable nature of the pathogen and an incomplete understanding of the host/pathogen interaction. To develop new lines with possibly more durable forms of resistance, different sources of genetic resistance must be identified and characterized. The objectives of this study were (1) to determine if different sources with anthracnose resistance possess different genes for resistance, (2) to determine the inheritance of anthracnose resistance in the groups identified in Objective 1, and (3) to identify which sources provide resistance across environments. Populations created from hybridizing resistant by resistant lines were evaluated to determine if segregation for resistance occurred within a family. The presence of segregation (susceptible plants) within a population indicated that the parents have different resistance genes. In the 11 germplasms evaluated, five different sources of resistance were identified. Segregation ratios in resistant × susceptible F2 populations were consistent with the expectations of simply inherited traits and resistance was dominant in some lines and recessive in others. Evaluation of the sources of resistance across environment indicated that one source (SC748-5) provided resistance in all evaluation environments. Methods for the use of this germplasm in anthracnose resistance breeding are recommended.