Crop modeling defines opportunities and challenges for drought escape, water capture, and yield increase using chilling-tolerant sorghum

Precise colocalization of sorghum's major chilling tolerance locus with Tannin1 due to tight linkage drag rather than antagonistic pleiotropy

Chilling tolerance in crops can increase resilience through longer growing seasons, drought escape, and nitrogen use efficiency. In sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench), breeding for chilling tolerance has been stymied by coinheritance of the largest-effect chilling tolerance locus, qSbCT04.62, with the major gene underlying undesirable grain proanthocyanidins, WD40 transcriptional regulator Tannin1. To test if this coinheritance is due to antagonistic pleiotropy of Tannin1, we developed and studied near-isogenic lines (NILs) carrying chilling tolerant haplotypes at qCT04.62. Whole-genome sequencing of the NILs revealed introgressions spanning part of the qCT04.62 confidence interval, including the Tannin1 gene and an ortholog of Arabidopsis cold regulator CBF/DREB1G. Segregation pattern of grain tannin in NILs confirmed the presence of wildtype Tannin1 and the reconstitution of a functional MYB-bHLH-WD40 regulatory complex. Low-temperature germination did not differ between NILs, suggesting that Tannin1 does not modulate this component of chilling tolerance. Similarly, NILs did not differ in seedling growth rate under either of two contrasting controlled environment chilling scenarios. Finally, while the chilling tolerant parent line had notably different photosynthetic responses from the susceptible parent line - including greater non-photochemical quenching before, during, and after chilling - the NIL responses match the susceptible parent. Thus, our findings suggest that tight linkage drag, not pleiotropy, underlies the precise colocalization of Tan1 with qCT04.62 and the qCT04.62 quantitative trait nucleotide lies outside the NIL introgressions. Breaking linkage at this locus should advance chilling tolerance breeding in sorghum and the identification of a novel chilling tolerance regulator.

Crop modeling suggests limited transpiration would increase yield of sorghum across drought-prone regions of the United States

Breeding sorghum to withstand droughts is pivotal to secure crop production in regions vulnerable to water scarcity. Limited transpiration (LT) restricts water demand at high vapor pressure deficit, saving water for use in critical periods later in the growing season. Here we evaluated the hypothesis that LT would increase sorghum grain yield in the United States. We used a process-based crop model, APSIM, which simulates interactions of genotype, environment, and management (G × E × M). In this study, the G component includes the LT trait (GT) and maturity group (GM), the EW component entails water deficit patterns, and the MP component represents different planting dates. Simulations were conducted over 33 years (1986-2018) for representative locations across the US sorghum belt (Kansas, Texas, and Colorado) for three planting dates and maturity groups. The interaction of GT x EW indicated a higher impact of LT sorghum on grain for late drought (LD), mid-season drought (MD), and early drought (ED, 8%), than on well-watered (WW) environments (4%). Thus, significant impacts of LT can be achieved in western regions of the sorghum belt. The lack of interaction of GT × GM × MP suggested that an LT sorghum would increase yield by around 8% across maturity groups and planting dates. Otherwise, the interaction GM × MP revealed that specific combinations are better suited across geographical regions. Overall, the findings suggest that breeding for LT would increase sorghum yield in the drought-prone areas of the US without tradeoffs.

New strategies to address world food security and elimination of malnutrition: future role of coarse cereals in human health

As we face increasing challenges of world food security and malnutrition, coarse cereals are coming into favor as an important supplement to human staple foods due to their high nutritional value. In addition, their functional components, such as flavonoids and polyphenols, make them an important food source for healthy diets. However, we lack a systematic understanding of the importance of coarse cereals for world food security and nutritional goals. This review summarizes the worldwide cultivation and distribution of coarse cereals, indicating that the global area for coarse cereal cultivation is steadily increasing. This paper also focuses on the special adaptive mechanisms of coarse cereals to drought and discusses the strategies to improve coarse cereal crop yields from the perspective of agricultural production systems. The future possibilities, challenges, and opportunities for coarse cereal production are summarized in the face of food security challenges, and new ideas for world coarse cereal production are suggested.

Genomics and phenomics enabled prebreeding improved early-season chilling tolerance in Sorghum

In temperate climates, earlier planting of tropical-origin crops can provide longer growing seasons, reduce water loss, suppress weeds, and escape post-flowering drought stress. However, chilling sensitivity of sorghum, a tropical-origin cereal crop, limits early planting, and over 50 years of conventional breeding has been stymied by coinheritance of chilling tolerance (CT) loci with undesirable tannin and dwarfing alleles. In this study, phenomics and genomics-enabled approaches were used for prebreeding of sorghum early-season CT. Uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) high-throughput phenotyping platform tested for improving scalability showed moderate correlation between manual and UAS phenotyping. UAS normalized difference vegetation index values from the chilling nested association mapping population detected CT quantitative trait locus (QTL) that colocalized with manual phenotyping CT QTL. Two of the 4 first-generation Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) molecular markers, generated using the peak QTL single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), failed to function in an independent breeding program as the CT allele was common in diverse breeding lines. Population genomic fixation index analysis identified SNP CT alleles that were globally rare but common to the CT donors. Second-generation markers, generated using population genomics, were successful in tracking the donor CT allele in diverse breeding lines from 2 independent sorghum breeding programs. Marker-assisted breeding, effective in introgressing CT allele from Chinese sorghums into chilling-sensitive US elite sorghums, improved early-planted seedling performance ratings in lines with CT alleles by up to 13-24% compared to the negative control under natural chilling stress. These findings directly demonstrate the effectiveness of high-throughput phenotyping and population genomics in molecular breeding of complex adaptive traits.