ABSTRACT
Forty Chinese sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] accessions maintained by the USDA-ARS,
Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Unit, Griffin, Georgia were evaluated for multiple
disease resistance. The level of sorghum downy mildew (SDM) infection with systemic infection
and local lesion development for infected plants was low to very high. Accessions PI511832,
PI563519, PI563521, PI563850, PI610677 and P 610724 were the most resistant to sorghum downy
mildew, whereas PI610692 and PI610720 were the most susceptible SDM. Thirty-three of the 40
sorghum accessions tested were susceptible to anthracnose. Four accessions, PI430471, PI563905,
PI563924 and PI563960, were uniformly resistant to anthracnose. No sorghum accession exhibited
resistance to both downy mildew and anthracnose. Because resistance was observed for anthracnose
or downy mildew within the subset of the Chinese germplasm collection, additional screening of
the collection could help identify accessions conferring resistance to multiple diseases to enhance sorghum improvement.
