Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is the fifth most important cereal crop grown in the world used as human and animal food, feedstock for energy production, fodder, and production of starch and starch derivatives (Doggett 1988; Bogunjoko 1992; Taylor et al. 2006; Rao et al. 2009; Sriroth et al. 2012; Proietti et al. 2015). In Brazil, sorghum is used primarily for animal feed production, and secondarily as forages, such as silage, grazing, and hay (Tabosa et al. 1993; Dykes et al. 2005; Rooney 2007, Silva et al. 2015).
Recently, with the growing demand for biofuel, sweet sorghum has emerged as a relevant biomass resource for ethanol production (Ratnavathi et al. 2011; Han et al. 2012; Zegada-Lizarazu and Monti 2012; Zhao et al. 2009). Sweet sorghum contains significant amounts of sugar, which can readily be
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1998; Frederiksen and Odvody 2000; Thakur and Mathur 2000; Ngugi et al. 2000; Costa et al. 2003; TeBeest et al. 2004). The disease symptoms range from stalk rot and foliar damage to peduncle breakage and grain deterioration (Tesso et al. 2012). Leaf symptoms of anthracnose typically appear as circular or elliptical to elongated lesions, with dark reddish-purple color to tan. The center of the lesion is straw-colored with reddish-brown or reddish-orange margins with numerous black fruiting bodies (acervuli) with setae (hairlike structures protruding from the acervuli) (Pastor-Corrales and Frederiksen 1980; Cunfer 2015; Kucharek 1992; Casella et al. 1998; TeBeest et al. 2004; Prom et al. 2016). Under high rainfall and humidity conditions, the spots increase in number and size and often coalesce and may cover most of the leaf surface. Although the disease symptoms may occur in all aerial parts of the of a plant and at all growth stage, the leaf symptoms are the most common and generally exacerbated at the early stage of the panicle development (Pastor-Corrales and Frederiksen