Hybrid performance as related to genomic diversity and population structure in public sorghum inbred lines

The low‐cost next‐generation sequencing technologies provide tremendous opportunities for dissecting complex traits in crop species. The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between genomic diversity, population structure, and hybrid performance in public sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] inbred lines. A total of 279 public sorghum inbred lines (228 R‐lines and 51 B‐lines) developed across more than two decades were studied. The inbreds were genotyped using genotyping‐by‐sequencing (GBS) platform, which generated 282,536 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). After filtering at a ≤5% threshold for minor allele frequency (MAF) and