Genomics of Sorghum, a.pdf

Chapter 20 Genomics of Sorghum, a Semi-Arid Cereal and Emerging Model for Tropical Grass Genomics Andrew H. Paterson, John E. Bowers, and F. Alex Feltus Abstract Sorghum, an important failsafe crop in the global agroecosystem, is also emerging as a model for tropical grasses based on its small and well-characterized genome, low level of gene duplication, and close relationship to the larger and more complex genomes of maize and sugarcane. A whole-genome shotgun sequence of the sorghum genome is complete and being annotated. The sorghum sequence, together with the attributes of sorghum as a prospective functional genomics and association genetics system, has many implications for better understanding the structure, function, and evolution of cereal genomes. In addition, the sequence will raise to a new level the opportunities to engage genomics in the improvement of human livelihood in arid and semi-arid tropical regions in which sorghum is a sta- ple. Already established as a seed-based ethanol crop, progress in understanding the genetic control of perenniality in sorghum makes it also promising as a cellulosic biofuels crop. 20.1 Introduction Sorghum, Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench, is one of the world’s leading cereal crops, providing food, feed, fiber, fuel, and chemical/biofuel feedstocks across a range of environments and production systems. Its remarkable ability to produce a crop under adverse conditions, in particular with much less water than most other grain crops, makes sorghum an important “failsafe” source of food, feed, fiber, and fuel in the global agroecosystem. Sorghum is a biofuel (ethanol) crop of growing importance. Already established as a seed-based ethanol crop, progress in understanding the genetic control of peren- niality in sorghum (Paterson et al. 1995b; Hu et al. 2003) makes it promising as a cellulosic biofuels crop. Cellulosic biofuel production offers compelling advantages over seed-based production (Farrell et al. 2006), but will requir