Advancing sorghum science: drought-resilient crop for Spain's agricultural future

https://www.cragenomica.es/crag-news/250313_NdP_SC_Caño-Delgado_sorghum

Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG)

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Root meristem region of sorghum showing cell division

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Credit: Credit: CRAG

Press release

 

• Sorghum is an increasingly important crop for animal and human nutrition, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, due to its natural resistance to drought and high temperatures.
• CRAG researchers have identified the molecular mechanisms responsible for drought resistance in sorghum and developed tools that could be used in biotechnological applications.
• These advances could combat the effects of climate change, reduce dependence on imports and improve food security for human consumption.

 

Bellaterra (Barcelona), 13 March 2025

In a series of three recent studies, a team led by CSIC researcher at CRAG Ana I. Caño-Delgado have made significant progress in understanding the molecular mechanisms and improving the breeding of sorghum, the world's fifth most cultivated cereal, which is particularly important in arid and semi-arid regions. The importance of this cereal lies in its role in the future of human and animal nutrition, providing a sustainable alternative for areas facing water scarcity.

Sorghum's growing importance

Sorghum is increasingly recognised as a staple food in many parts of the world, including outside Africa where it has been cultivated for centuries, due to its multiple nutritional benefits and resistance to adverse climatic conditions. In Europe, sorghum cultivation is on the rise and is being promoted as an alternative for crop rotation especially in regions prone to water scarcity. The European Union is actively promoting sorghum cultivation as a climate-resilient crop, with a 57% increase in total sorghum production during the last decade. France, in particular, is at the forefront of this trend with 103.000 hectares dedicated to grain sorghum cultivation last year. Meanwhile Spain is a major importer of sorghum in Europe, mainly for animal feed but with prospects for human food in the future. In 2020, 158.000 tonnes were imported into Spain, so an increase in its cultivation on the territory could reduce dependence on imports. For reference, Spain imported 303.000 tonnes of barley in the last six months, making it the third most imported crop.

CRAG's scientific contributions

CRAG's research efforts are at the vanguard of advancing sorghum science, focusing on improving, even further, its adaptability to stress conditions and enhancing its handling in the laboratory for future breeding processes. For the last 20 years, the research group led by Ana I. Caño-Delgado has been dedicated to the study of this cereal and has received numerous grants, including an ERC PoC from the European Research Council (ERC). In the last six months, the group has published three scientific articles of great importance to the sector.

In the first of these three studies, published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal, the research team identified that mutations in the protein Sorghum bicolor brassinosteroid receptor, SbBRI1, confer drought tolerance by altering phenylpropanoid metabolism. This finding highlights a molecular mechanism for enhancing drought resistance in sorghum, a critical trait for climate-resilient agriculture.

A second work, published in The Plant Journal, detailed a significant advancement in sorghum biotechnology: an efficient sorghum transformation method using a ternary vector system combined with morphogenic regulators.  Previous tools and methods were not effective enough for studying certain varieties of sorghum, posing a significant challenge for scientists and breeders. This new protocol solves this problem by allowing for highly efficient transformation using Agrobacterium tumefaciens and enables the application of new breeding techniques like gene editing to accelerate crop improvement. This technology provides a useful tool for creating and studying mutants of interest with a very high efficiency in the transformation of recalcitrant sorghum (varieties that are resistant to genetic transformation), reaching 2-fold increase of the transformation efficiency.

Juan B. Fontanet-Manzaneque, lead author of both studies, underscored the significance of these breakthroughs in sorghum cultivation: “Our goal was to equip the sorghum community with not only cutting-edge molecular tools to accelerate sorghum breeding but also some key target genes essential for developing drought-resistant crops”.

The third study, which is published today in New Phytologist Journal, characterizes the role of SbBRI1 in root development, specifically in the meristem region, linking BRI1 to cell wall metabolism and demonstrating that the sorghum SbBRI1 protein plays functionally conserved roles in plant growth and development. The root development is crucial for the overall growth and health of the plant and plays a role in how the plant responds to environmental stressors.

Andrés Rico-Medina, first author of the study, highlighted the implemented technique: “We adapted the staining and imaging protocols that are used in model plants like Arabidopsis to be useful for studies in Sorghum.” He also noted that: “This adaptation serves to bridge the gap between laboratory-based drought studies and a more agronomic context, thereby facilitating the practical application of these scientific advancements.”

Socio-economic and political implications

Sorghum is increasingly considered as a crucial crop for climate change adaptation due to its tolerance to high temperatures and drought, especially compared to maize, which is the most widely cultivated cereal in Europe and is highly susceptible to water stress. Studies show that the importance of sorghum in Europe is expected to increase because of climate change. Also, the expansion of sorghum cultivation in Spain could create new economic opportunities for farmers, reducing dependence on imports and boosting local agricultural production. In Catalonia, more than 100.000 tonnes of sorghum were produced in 2023, more than 90% of which was destined for animal feed.

Furthermore, sorghum is a naturally gluten-free cereal, a particularly relevant characteristic in the food industry. Its adaptability and high nutritional value make it a key crop for improving food security. The rising demand for sorghum for human consumption, with an increase by around 6% in demand in 2024, highlights its potential to improve nutrition, especially when research is leading to new varieties of sorghum.

Ana I. Caño-Delgado, leader of the group, said: “This research represents a significant opportunity for CRAG to establish technology transfer projects, to encourage public-private collaboration, and to highlight the excellent work of our researchers”

These three groundbreaking scientific advancements by CRAG’s researchers not only pave the way for more sustainable and productive sorghum cultivation but also mark a critical step forward in addressing global food security and nutrition challenges. Moreover, this finding is relevant for other essential crops such as maize, wheat and rice, because they also contain brassinosteroid signalling pathways. This creates an opportunity for climate-smart agriculture, with more resilient and sustainable varieties.

  

Sorghum plant

 Andrés Rico, first author of the study, and on the right Ana I. Caño-Delgado, who led the study

Credit

Credit: CRAG

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Reference Articles:

Andrés Rico-Medina, Natalie Laibach, Juan B. Fontanet-Manzaneque, David Blasco-Escámez, Fidel Lozano-Elena, Damiano Martignago, and Ana I. Caño-Delgado. Molecular and physiological characterization of brassinosteroid receptor BRI1 mutants in Sorghum bicolor. New Phytologist, https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.20443

Juan B. Fontanet-Manzaneque, Jari Haeghebaert, Stijn Aesaert, Griet Coussens, Laurens Pauwels, Ana I. Caño-Delgado. Efficient sorghum and maize transformation using a ternary vector system combined with morphogenic regulators. The Plant Journal, https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.17101

Juan B. Fontanet-Manzaneque, Natalie Laibach, Iván Herrero-García, Veredas Coleto-Alcudia, David Blasco-Escámez, Chen Zhang, Luis Orduña, Saleh Alseekh, Sara Miller, Nanna Bjarnholt, Alisdair R. Fernie, José Tomás Matus, Ana I. Caño-Delgado. Untargeted mutagenesis of brassinosteroid receptor SbBRI1 confers drought tolerance by altering phenylpropanoid metabolism in Sorghum bicolor. Plant Biotechnology Journal, https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.14461

 

About the authors and funding of the study: Ana I. Caño-Delgado is a recipient of a BIO2016-78150-P grant funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and Agencia Estatal de Investigación (MINECO/AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), and a European Research Council, ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2015-CoG – 683163). Juan B. Fontanet-Manzaneque is supported by the grant 2017SGR718 from Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya and by the ERC- 2015-CoG – 683163 granted to the Ana I. Caño-Delgado laboratory. Natalie Laibach has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 945043 and was additionally supported by grant CEX2019-000902-S funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. Andrés Rico-Medina received a predoctoral fellowship from Fundación Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno. David Blasco-Escámez and Damiano Martignago are funded by the ERC-2015-CoG – 683163 granted to the Ana I. Caño-Delgado laboratory. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No 683163). This work was supported by the CERCA Programme from the Generalitat de Catalunya. We acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), through the “Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D” 2016-2019 (SEV-2015-0533).

About the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG): CRAG is a centre that forms part of the CERCA system of research centres of the Government of Catalonia (Spain), and which was established as a partnership of four institutions: the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Institute for Agri-Food Research and Technology (IRTA), the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the University of Barcelona (UB). CRAG’s research spans from basic research in plant and farm animal molecular biology, to applications of molecular approaches for breeding of species important for agriculture and food production in close collaboration with industry. In 2020, CRAG was recognized for the second time as a "Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence” by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

About New Phytologist: New Phytologist is a leading international journal focusing on high quality, original research across the broad spectrum of plant sciences, from intracellular processes through to global environmental change. The journal is owned by the New Phytologist Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of plant science. https://www.newphytologist.org/

 

Materials:

• 1_ root.jpg: Root meristem region of sorghum showing cell division (Credit: CRAG).
• 2_ authors.jpg: On the left Andrés Rico, first author of the study, and on the right Ana I. Caño-Delgado, who led the study (Credit: CRAG).
• 3_ sorghum.jpg: Sorghum plant (Credit: CRAG).

Materials can be downloaded here: https://t.ly/o-yMm

 

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Journal

New Phytologist

DOI

10.1111/nph.20443 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Molecular and physiological characterization of brassinosteroid receptor BRI1 mutants in Sorghum bicolor

Article Publication Date

13-Mar-2025

Sorghum, a close relative of corn, tested for disease resistance on Pennsylvania farms

PENN STATE

Research News

 

IMAGE: DINAKARAN ELANGO, RECENT PLANT SCIENCE STUDENT, WITH BIOMASS SORGHUM LINES GROWING IN A RESEARCH PLOT AT PENN STATE'S RUSSELL E. LARSON AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH CENTER, ROCK SPRINGS, PA. RESEARCHERS CHARACTERIZED ANTHRACNOSE... view more 

CREDIT: SURINDER CHOPRA/PENN STATE

With sorghum poised to become an important crop grown by Pennsylvania farmers, Penn State researchers, in a new study, tested more than 150 germplasm lines of the plant for resistance to a fungus likely to hamper its production.

Sorghum, a close relative to corn, is valuable for yielding human food, animal feed and biofuels. Perhaps its most notable attribute is that the grain it produces is gluten free. Drought resistant and needing a smaller amount of nutrients than corn to thrive, sorghum seems to be a crop that would do well in the Keystone State's climate in a warming world. But its susceptibility to fungal disease is problematic.

"In other locations where sorghum has been grown for a long time, it is attacked by a fungal pathogen that causes a disease called anthracnose leaf blight, which diminishes its yield," said study co-author Surinder Chopra, professor of maize genetics in the College of Agricultural Sciences. "We conducted a three-part experiment designed to evaluate the likelihood that anthracnose will be a problem with sorghum production in Pennsylvania, and what plants might resist the disease."

First, researchers carried out field surveys in 2011, 2012 and 2016 in six Pennsylvania locations to monitor the presence of the Colletotrichum fungus that causes anthracnose in commercial sorghum fields. They collected soil samples, plant samples and samples of the debris left by sorghum or corn, looking for the fungus at sites in Blair, Lancaster, Dauphin, Centre, Bedford and Lebanon counties.

Next, researchers grew 158 sorghum lines at Penn State's Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs and tested them for vulnerability and resistance to the natural strains of anthracnose fungus. They obtained plant material for many of the sorghum lines from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, better known as ICRISAT, India.

Other sorghum lines came from varieties Chopra's research group has been breeding in plots at Rock Springs for years and are being tested for stress tolerance in another study. Still others came from sources such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service stations in Griffin, Georgia, Lincoln, Nebraska, and Lubbock, Texas; the Grain, Forage and Bioenergy Research Center, Texas A&M Agrilife Sorghum Breeding Program; and the National Plant Germplasm System.

Lastly, researchers conducted experiments in greenhouses on the University Park campus. They chose 35 sorghum lines that demonstrated resistance to the fungus in field trials and tested their responses after inoculating them with the pathogen. The team evaluated and scored those plants for the severity of anthracnose leaf blight that developed.

In findings recently published in Crop Science, Chopra and colleagues reported that the anthracnose leaf blight symptoms were observed on the older and senescent leaves in Pennsylvania. After evaluating, in field and greenhouse tests, the performance of the 158 experimental lines and commercial hybrids, the researchers noted that they discovered sources of resistance to anthracnose leaf blight.

"Many of those sorghum lines we tested had been improved in several states in the U.S. and in other parts of the world," Chopra said. "These should be useful in breeding programs targeted for Pennsylvania and for northeastern U.S. climatic conditions. Several lines received from ICRISAT showed the high level of resistance in the field."

The research was done in preparation for widespread cultivation of sorghum in Pennsylvania, at which time anthracnose leaf blight is expected to become a problem for farmers, Chopra explained.

"Our study is the first to investigate the frequency, diversity and distribution of Colletotrichum fungi species on sorghum in Pennsylvania, and the first to look for disease-tolerant strains that will grow best in the Northeast," he said. "Our findings will help develop better recommendations for sorghum growers so they can manage and proactively prevent the buildup of inoculum and resulting disease outbreaks."

Also involved in the research were Iffa Gaffoor, former postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Plant Science at Penn State, advised by Chopra; Germán Sandoya, Everglades Research and Education Center/Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida; Katia Xavier, Lisa Vaillancourt and Etta Nuckles, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Kentucky; and Srinivasa R Pinnamaneni, Sorghum Breeding Program, ICRISAT, Patancheru, India.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Fundacion Alfonso Martin Escudero for postdoctoral research provided funding for this work.

CAPTION

Sorghum, a close relative to corn, is valuable for yielding human food, animal feed and biofuels. Perhaps its most notable attribute is that the grain it produces is gluten free.

CREDIT

Surinder Chopra, Penn State

CAPTION

Researchers cultured Colletotrichum strains recovered from sorghum from various Pennsylvania farms (top and middle rows). Spores (bottom row) were collected from the culture plates at 14 days after inoculation.

CREDIT

Chopra Lab, Penn State

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From lab to field: CABBI pipeline delivers oil-rich sorghum

Higher levels of TAG production could provide 1.4 times more oil per hectare than soybeans, making this a promising new feedstock for renewable fuels.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment

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Left to right: Kiyoul Park, Truyen Quach, and Ming Guo harvesting sorghum biomass to deliver to IBRL at the University of Illinois for bioprocessing

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Credit: Edgar Cahoon

Researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) have developed a new sorghum variant that can outperform soybeans in oil production, with great potential as a clean source of renewable fuel.

Scientists have long worked to create new sustainable sources of vegetable oils, known as triacylglycerols (TAG), to meet the growing demand for renewable fuels like sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel.

Currently, oil palm and oilseeds such as soybeans provide most TAG for renewable fuels, but these sources alone cannot meet future global needs. To address this, researchers have been engineering high-biomass grasses like sorghum to produce oil. These grasses are highly efficient at photosynthesis, produce large amounts of biomass, and can grow in tough climates, making them excellent candidates.

In their new study, published in Plant Biotechnology Journal, CABBI scientists highlight the utility of a lab-to-field pipeline to deliver sorghum that’s high in TAG. Researchers engineered sorghum to accumulate up to 5.5% dry weight TAG in its leaves and 3.5% dry weight in its stems under field conditions — 78 times and 58 times more than unmodified sorghum, respectively. This level of production could provide about 1.4 times more oil per hectare than soybeans, making this a promising new feedstock for renewable fuels.

“This work is the culmination of a large team effort that demonstrates how fundamental research can be used to develop new crop feedstocks to address global energy demands,” said Edgar Cahoon, Director of the Center for Plant Science Innovation at University of Nebraska and one of the corresponding authors on the paper. Cahoon worked with Kiyoul Park, Senior Research Associate in the Department of Biochemistry at University of Nebraska and lead author on the paper; and Tom Clemente, Eugene W. Price Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology at the University of Nebraska; along with many other CABBI experts.

In contrast to oil-rich seeds and fruit from plants like oil palm and soybean, TAG typically only accumulates in a plant’s vegetative organs (leaves and stems) as a stress response to membrane damage.

To design sorghum for vegetative oil accumulation, the researchers used a “push-pull-protect” strategy, which CABBI researchers have previously used to increase vegetative oil accumulation in other plants. They introduced genes to “push” more carbon from photosynthesis into oil production, “pull” fatty acids into TAG molecules, and “protect” the stored oil from breaking down. This approach built on previous successes with other crops, focusing in on sorghum for its heat and drought tolerance and well-understood genome.

By using advanced gene transfer methods, CABBI scientists engineered sorghum lines that, when grown in the field at the Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension, and Education Center, not only maintained stable oil production over multiple generations, but also avoided the biomass reductions seen in similar studies with other biomass crops.

“The breadth of expertise in CABBI has allowed us to take a concept from the lab and put it to practice for field production of a new bioenergy and bioproduct feedstock,” Cahoon said.

These newly engineered oil sorghum lines provide potential new sources of feedstocks for renewable diesel and SAF, reducing reliance on traditional oil crops while meeting the growing demand for renewable energy. And this oil sorghum also has the potential to provide new income streams and markets for farmers. Oil sorghum bioprocessing opens up new ways to spur the bioeconomy and support rural vitality.

The research team will continue to study how to further increase oil yields to meet CABBI’s goal of growing crops that are 10% TAG by dry weight.

“The basis for further improvement of TAG yields will depend on in-depth analysis of the effects of the ‘push-pull-protect’ metabolic engineering approach applied in the study,” said Jörg Schwender, Senior Scientist of the Plant Science Group at Brookhaven National Laboratory and another corresponding author on the paper. “For example, in the current study, the team used whole transcriptome shotgun sequencing (or RNA sequencing), a technique that analyzes the activity of thousands of genes at the same time in tissue samples.”

This analysis found that the oil sorghum lines increase production of an enzyme in their leaves that breaks down lipids, and as such likely also attacks TAG. Further analysis of metabolic flux with isotope tracers confirmed that lipids, although being made at a higher rate in the oil sorghum leaves, are degraded faster at the same time. These findings likely can be translated into a refined engineering strategy that further increases oil levels. The research team aims to refine this approach to make sorghum a reliable, sustainable biofuel feedstock.

Other co-authors on this study include CABBI researchers Truyen Quach, Teresa J. Clark, Hyojin Kim, Tieling Zhang, Shirley Sato, Tara J. Nazarenus; CABBI PIs Stephen P. Moose and Kankshita Swaminathan; Mengyuan Wang from the Plant Transformation Core Research Facility at Nebraska; Ming Guo and Chi Zhang from the Center for Plant Science Innovation at Nebraska; and Rostislav Blume and Yaroslav Blume from the Institute of Food Biotechnology and Genomics in Ukraine.

— Article by CABBI Communications Specialist April Wendling

Hyojin Kim bagging sorghum heads — an essential step for APHIS-compliant transgenic sorghum field trials

Credit

Edgar Cahoon

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Journal

Plant Biotechnology Journal

DOI

10.1111/pbi.14527 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Development of vegetative oil sorghum: From lab-to-field

Sweet sorghum: Sweet promise for the environment

IMAGE: THE KIT1 SORGHUM VARIETY DEVELOPED BY KIT ACCUMULATES A HIGH AMOUNT OF SUGAR AND THRIVES PARTICULARLY WELL UNDER TEMPERATE CLIMATE CONDITIONS. view more 

CREDIT: BOTANICAL INSTITUTE, KIT

New sorghum variety developed at KIT shows increased sugar accumulation and can be used for energy and materials production -- scientists report in Industrial Crops & Products

KARLSRUHER INSTITUT FÜR TECHNOLOGIE (KIT)

Research News

 

Sweet sorghum can be used to produce biogas, biofuels, and novel polymers. In addition, it can help replace phosphate fertilizers. A new sweet sorghum variety developed at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) accumulates particularly high amounts of sugar and thrives under local conditions. As the scientists reported in the Industrial Crops & Products journal, sugar transport and sugar accumulation are related to the structure of the plants' vessels. This was the result of a comparison between sweet and grain sorghums. (DOI: 10.1016/j.indcrop.2021.113550)

As the world's population grows, the demand for food, raw materials, and energy is also on the rise. This increases the burden on the environment and the climate. One strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to grow so-called C4 crops. These carry out photosynthesis particularly efficiently, are therefore more effective in fixing carbon dioxide (CO2), and build up more biomass than other plants. Usually, they are native to sunny and warm places. One of the C4 plants is sorghum, also known as great millet, a species of the sorghum genus in the sweet grass family. The varieties that are particularly rich in sugar are called sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench). Other varieties include grain sorghum used as animal feed. Sorghum can be grown on so-called marginal land, which is difficult to cultivate, so it does not compete with other food or forage crops.

A new sweet sorghum variety called KIT1 has been developed by Dr. Adnan Kanbar in the Molecular Cell Biology Division research group headed by Professor Peter Nick at the Botanical Institute of KIT. KIT1 accumulates particularly high amounts of sugar and thrives especially well under temperate climate conditions. It can be used both energetically, i.e. for the production of biogas and biofuels, and as a base material for the production of novel polymers. The estimated sugar yield per hectare is over 4.4 tons, which would correspond to almost 3,000 liters of bioethanol. In addition, the digestate produced during biogas production can be used for fertilizers to replace phosphate fertilizer, which will soon be in short supply.

The Plant Stem Anatomy is What Matters

Researchers at Nick's laboratory, which is part of the Institute for Applied Biosciences, and their colleagues at the Institute for Technical Chemistry at KIT and at ARCUS Greencycling Technology in Ludwigsburg compared the KIT1 sweet sorghum and Razinieh grain sorghum varieties in order to investigate the different sugar accumulation behaviors in the plant stem. For the study, published in the Industrial Crops & Products journal, the team looked at the stem anatomy. This includes the thickened areas (nodes) and the narrow areas or spaces between nodes (internodes), but also transcripts of important sucrose transporter genes as well as stress responses of plants to high salt concentrations in the soil. Sugar accumulation was highest in the central internodes in both genotypes. However, a relationship was found between sugar accumulation and the structure of the vessels that serve to transport water, solutes, and organic substances. The vessels are grouped into vascular bundles. These consist of the phloem (bast part) and the xylem (wood part). The phloem mainly transports sugars and amino acids, while the xylem's primary function is to transport water and inorganic salts; in addition, the xylem has a supporting function. The study revealed that in KIT1 and five other sweet sorghum varieties, the phloem cross-sectional area in the stem is much larger than the xylem cross-sectional area - the difference is much more pronounced than in the Razinieh grain sorghum variety. "Our study is the first one to look at the relationship between the structure of the vascular bundles and sugar accumulation in the stem," Nick says.

Sweet Sorghum Copes Better with Salinity Stress

As the study further revealed, salinity stress led to higher sugar accumulation in KIT1 than in Razinieh. The expression of sucrose transporter genes was higher in KIT1 leaves under normal conditions, and increased significantly under salinity stress. "Besides anatomical factors, there also some molecular factors that might contribute to regulating sugar accumulation in the stem," Kanbar explains. "In any case, KIT1 responds better to salinity stress." (or)

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Original Publication

Adnan Kanbar, Ehsan Shakeri, Dema Alhajturki, Michael Riemann, Mirko Bunzel, Marco Tomasi Morgano, Dieter Stapf, Peter Nick: Sweet versus grain sorghum: Differential sugar transport and accumulation are linked with vascular bundle architecture. Industrial Crops & Products, 2021. DOI: 10.1016/j.indcrop.2021.113550

Abstract at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2021.113550

Contact for this press release:

Sandra Wiebe, Press Officer, phone: +49 721 608-41172, e-mail: sandra.wiebe@kit.edu

Being "The Research University in the Helmholtz Association", KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,600 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 23,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.

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