Advances in genetics increase the sustainability of agriculture in Brazil
Sorghum
Brazil
Published Sep 15, 2022
Tridge summary
The first good news came for the sorghum crop. A simple genetic modification makes it possible to triple the number of grains in sorghum, a drought-tolerant plant that is an important source of food, animal feed and biofuel in many parts of the world. The discovery by scientists Doreen Ware and Zhanguo Xin was published in the journal Nature (bitly.ws/thfh). The study used high-yield sorghum genotypes subjected to a chemical-induced mutation.
Original content
Some of the modified plants showed yield gains. In the photo, the image on the left shows a conventional variety of sorghum. A terminal spike with several sessile (round) spikelets containing grains is observed, and some pediceled spikelets (white arrows), represented by narrow oblong compartments that do not contain grains. In the modified variant (right) all spikelets are sessile and contain grains. Like many cereal crops, sorghum grains are produced in clusters of flowers that develop from a branching structure at the top of the plant called a panicle. Each panicle can produce hundreds of flowers. There are two types of flowers, and usually only one of them, known as a sessile spikelet, is fertile. The other type of flower, called a pediceled spikelet, does not produce seeds. However, in the modified plants obtained by mutagenesis, both sessile and pediceled spikelets produced seeds, increasing the number of grains of each plant. Scientists wanted to understand the reason for ...
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