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Accurate phenotyping of 1585 proso millet germplasm resources and screening for high-yield and shattering-resistant accessions

Jiang Chao, Li Hai*, Song Xiao-Qiang, Yang Fang, Liang Hai-Yan, Su Zhan-Ming,Wang Li   

  1. High Latitude Crops Institute, Shanxi Agricultural University, Datong 037008, Shanxi, China
  • Received:2026-04-20 Revised:2026-08-21 Accepted:2026-08-21 Published:2026-08-26
  • Supported by:
    This study was supported by the Key Research and Development Program of Shanxi Province (20240214601002), the Special Fund for Construction of Modern Agricultural Industrial Technology System of Shanxi Province (2025CYJSTX03-22), the National Millet and Sorghum Industry Technology System Project (CARS-06-14.5-B6), and the Shanxi Agricultural University Breeding Engineering Project (YZGC084).

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Abstract: In this study, 1585 proso millet germplasm accessions were evaluated. A total of 21 phenotypic traits were evaluated over two consecutive years (2024–2025). Comprehensive assessments were conducted using variation analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), and cluster analysis to identify and select elite germplasm accessions with high yield and shattering resistance. The results showed abundant phenotypic variation among the tested accessions. The coefficients of variation for heading date and maturity date ranged from 15.00% to 15.51% and from 12.65% to 13.27%, respectively, and the Shannon index ranged from 1.73 to 1.78. No significant correlation was observed between shattering resistance and yield or plant architecture (|r| ≤ 0.15), and accessions with strong shattering resistance accounted for 48.52% of the total, indicating that shattering resistance can be targeted as an independent trait for genetic improvement. A coefficient of variation (CV) of 179.39% was found for tillering rate, while CVs exceeding 40% were obtained for both grain weight per plant and panicle weight per plant. Positive correlations were detected between tillering rate and main stem diameter (r = 0.51), as well as between tillering rate and panicle weight per plant (r = 0.46). Although the CV of thousand-grain weight was only 14.84%, a Shannon index of 2.07 was observed, suggesting that thousand-grain weight can be selected independently of plant architecture and panicle yield. Six principal components were extracted by principal component analysis, with a cumulative contribution rate of 70.61%; the first principal component (growth and biomass factor, 27.01%) and the third principal component (yield factor, 11.22%) were identified as the main sources of phenotypic variation. The accessions were classified into five phenotypic groups using K-means clustering, and significant differences in traits were observed among the groups. A total of 79 elite accessions were screened, among which accessions 00006525 (high yield, strong tillering), 00000662 (high yield, shattering resistance), and 00001208 (compact panicle, shattering resistance) were identified as elite germplasm exhibiting multiple desirable target traits.

Key words:  , proso millet, germplasm accessions, phenotypic traits, genetic diversity, shattering resistance, cluster analysis

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