SEED-COLOR INHERITANCE IN CERTAIN GRAIN- 
SORGHUM CROSSES 1 
By JohnB. SiEGLINGER, 
Assistant Agronomist , Office of Cereal Investigations , Bureau of Plant Industry, 
United States Department of Agriculture 
INTRODUCTION 
Color of seed is one of the most evident varietal characters of the 
grain sorghums. Though it is not of major economic importance, yet 
it does influence the popularity of a variety. On the Kansas City and 
Wichita markets yellow milo is generally quoted at io cents per ioo 
pounds higher than white kafir. On the other hand, brown-seeded 
sorghums do not command as high a price or sell as readily as do the 
varieties with white, yellow, or red seeds. 
. laturally, color of seed has attracted the attention of the plant breeder 
wo rking with sorghums as it has that of workers with most other cereal 
crops. Graham (2) 2 of India investigated the inheritance of seed color 
in natural and artificial sorghum crosses. The colors studied were red, 
yellow, and white. Red was found to be dominant to yellow and white, 
and yellow dominant to white. In a cross between a yellow- and a 
white-seeded sorghum, the heterozygote was red seeded, segregating in 
the F 2 generation in a ratio of 9 red : 3 yellow: 4 white. Karper and 
Conner (6) and Sieglinger (8) determined the amount of cross-polli¬ 
nation in milo by taking advantage of the fact that the seed of the Fj of a 
cross between white and yellow milo is yellow. Vinall and Cron (9), 
in reporting the inheritance of certain sorghum characters, state that a 
close agreement to a 9:7 dihybrid ratio for brown and white seed was 
obtained in crosses between Blackhull kafir and feterita. This color 
inheritance was attributed to two factors— B , a factor for brown color, 
carried by the Blackhull kafir, and 5 , a spreader factor carried by the 
feterita. 
Conner and Karper (j), in a paper published after the original draft of 
this paper was written, reported on the inheritance of seed-coat color in 
the hybrids Dwarf Yellow X Dwarf White milo, Blackhull X Red kafir, 
and Blackhull X Pink kafir. They found the Fj in the milo cross to be 
indistinguishable in color from the yellow parent, the F 2 segregating 
in the ratio of 3 yellow to 1 white. In the Blackhull kafir X Red kafir 
cross, the seeds borne by the Fj plants were pale red, intermediate in 
color between those of the parents. The F 2 segregated in the ratio of 1 
white, 2 pale red, and 1 red. The phenotypic classification of the material 
was substantiated by growing the F s , practically all of the whites and 
reds remaining constant and the pale reds segregating. In the cross 
Blackhull kafir X Pink kafir the Fj was intermediate in seed color between 
the parents, the F 2 segregating in the ratio of 1 white, 2 pale pink, and 
1 pink. No hybrid vigor was noted in any of these three crosses between 
sorghum varieties, the parents apparently being similar in most respects 
except seed color. 
1 Accepted for publication November 19, 1923. 
* Reference is made by numbers ( italic ) to “Literature cited,” p. 64. 
Vol. XXVII, No 1 
Jan. 5, 1924. 
Key No. G-348 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Washington, I). C. 
(S3) 
