Sorghum is one of the world's oldest grains and possesses many traits that can benefit food security, climate resilience, and biodiversity. However, the mechanisms behind these traits have long remained a mystery to researchers, which has hindered efficient cultivation. Now, a new technique and a biobank - developed in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen - have made research and breeding possible at an unprecedented pace, paving the way to an effective crop in both the Global North and South.
It is rich in plant proteins, fiber and minerals - and naturally gluten-free. Sorghum is also more efficient in its use of soil nitrogen, reducing the need for fertilizers - which benefits both climate and biodiversity. Moreover, it can withstand both drought and floods. The sorghum plant, also known as durra, boasts a long list of qualities.
Indeed, there are many reasons why sorghum has been attracting more and more attention from researchers and industry alike, who see great potential for sorghum in a future of increased climate change, drought frequency and flooding.
There's just one problem: how it manages to do all this remains a mystery.
Now, a new technique called 'FIND-IT' can efficiently identify new mutations in specific genes within large seed collections, offering hope for the plant's potential to be unlocked. Along with a newly established large seed collection, the researchers behind the project expect that crop variants capable of being cultivated effectively in both northern and southern latitudes can be developed in record time.
A scientific article published in a special edition of the plant journal Physiologia Plantarum focuses on new breeding techniques. In it, the researchers present each of these two new research resources developed through close collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, the Carlsberg Laboratory and the University of Queensland in Australia.
Sorghum is naturally resistant to genetic transformation. Even modern genetic tools like CRISPR and GMO, which typically allow for more precise and rapid genetic modifications than traditional breeding, have limited effectiveness in sorghum.
This poses a challenge for developing agricultural traits in the plant since traditional breeding takes a long time. However, these new research resources create a completely new opportunity.
"The project has provided us with a larger haystack - almost literally - in the form of a comprehensive collection of sorghum plants and their seeds, one that represents nearly the entire genetic variation of sorghum. At the same time, with 'FIND-IT,' we've acquired a technique that makes it possible to quickly and efficiently find the needle in the haystack - in the form of the variants in specific genes that we suspect to be crucial for the plant's traits," says Associate Professor Nanna Bjarnholt from the University of Copenhagen Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences.
