EVALUATION OF NUTRITIONAL PROPERTIES OF TISSUE CULTURED SORGHUM [SORGHUM BICOLOR (L) MOENCH]

Abstract

Tissue  culture  techniques  are  commonly  used  in  plants  as  an  efficient  way  to propagate  and  store  valuable  genotypes.  Often,  some  of  the  regenerants  differ from the parental type, a phenomenon called somaclonal variability. Assessment of nutritional  value  variability  in  crops  that  may  arise  from  somaclonal  variability during  tissue  culture  propagation  may  have  a  strong  impact  on  plant  breeding, conservation of genetic resources and nutrition in the areas of use. It is particularly useful  in  the  characterization  of  individual  cultivars,  and  in  determining duplications  in  germplasm  collections  and  for  selecting  parents.  The Sorghum bicolor  (L)  Moench  tissue  culture  (TC)  regenerants  (Seredo,  Mtama  1  and  El Gardam)  were  developed  at  the  Jomo  Kenyatta  University  of  Agriculture  and Technology  towards  improvement  for  water  stress  tolerance  for  improved  food production in the ASALs in Kenya. The study was conducted to evaluate the nutritional value of the parents and TC regenerants of Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench local cultivars (Seredo, Mtama 1 and El Gardam) in Kenya. For proximate composition significant (p≤0.05) differences were observed  in  parents  and  regenerants  of  the  El‐Gardam  (moisture,  proteins  and crude  fiber),  Mtama  1  (proteins)  and  Seredo  (fats  and  crude  fiber).  The  mineral compositions of the parents and regenerants of the cultivars were not significantly different (p ≤ 0.05) except for Zinc in Mtama 1 cultivar and Iron in both El‐Gardam and  Mtama  1  cultivars.  B‐vitamins  showed  significant  differences  (p ≤  0.05)  for both thiamine and Pyridoxine in El‐Gardam and Seredo. Significant variability (p ≤ 0.05) was shown phytates content in each cultivar. The parents were observed to have significantly higher amounts of Phytates than the regenerants within all the cultivars.  The  study  recommends  Mtama  1  regenerants  with  low  anti‐nutrient appropriate  for  ASALs  with  respect  to  nutrient  availability  since  anti‐nutrients  in sorghum  have  been  shown  to  impair the  bioavailability  of  the other  nutrients  to the body.