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Chapman EA, Thomsen HC, Tulloch S, Correia PMP, Luo G, Najafi J, DeHaan LR, Crews TE, Olsson L, Lundquist PO, Westerbergh A, Pedas PR, Knudsen S, Palmgren M. Perennials as Future Grain Crops: Opportunities and Challenges. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2022; 13:898769. [PMID: 35968139 PMCID: PMC9372509 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.898769] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2022] [Accepted: 06/20/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Perennial grain crops could make a valuable addition to sustainable agriculture, potentially even as an alternative to their annual counterparts. The ability of perennials to grow year after year significantly reduces the number of agricultural inputs required, in terms of both planting and weed control, while reduced tillage improves soil health and on-farm biodiversity. Presently, perennial grain crops are not grown at large scale, mainly due to their early stages of domestication and current low yields. Narrowing the yield gap between perennial and annual grain crops will depend on characterizing differences in their life cycles, resource allocation, and reproductive strategies and understanding the trade-offs between annualism, perennialism, and yield. The genetic and biochemical pathways controlling plant growth, physiology, and senescence should be analyzed in perennial crop plants. This information could then be used to facilitate tailored genetic improvement of selected perennial grain crops to improve agronomic traits and enhance yield, while maintaining the benefits associated with perennialism.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Sophia Tulloch
- Department of Raw Materials, Carlsberg Research Laboratory, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Pedro M. P. Correia
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark
| | - Guangbin Luo
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark
| | - Javad Najafi
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark
| | | | | | - Lennart Olsson
- Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies, Lund, Sweden
| | - Per-Olof Lundquist
- Department of Plant Biology, Uppsala BioCenter, Linnean Centre for Plant Biology in Uppsala, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Anna Westerbergh
- Department of Plant Biology, Uppsala BioCenter, Linnean Centre for Plant Biology in Uppsala, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Pai Rosager Pedas
- Department of Raw Materials, Carlsberg Research Laboratory, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Søren Knudsen
- Department of Raw Materials, Carlsberg Research Laboratory, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Michael Palmgren
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark
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Whole-genome resequencing of Sorghum bicolor and S. bicolor × S. halepense lines provides new insights for improving plant agroecological characteristics. Sci Rep 2022; 12:5556. [PMID: 35365708 PMCID: PMC8976056 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-09433-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2021] [Accepted: 03/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. (Moench)) is the world's fifth economically most important cereal and is a staple particularly in the semi-arid tropics of Africa and Asia. Genetic gains in this crop can benefit from wild relatives such as Sorghum halepense. Genome sequences including those from this wild species can boost the study of genome-wide and intraspecific variation for dissecting the genetic basis and improving important traits in sorghum. The whole-genome resequencing carried out in this work on a panel of 172 populations of S. bicolor and S. bicolor × S. halepense (SbxSh) advanced lines generated a total of 567,046,841 SNPs, 91,825,474 indels, 1,532,171 SVs, and 4,973,961 CNVs. Clearly, SbxSh accumulated more variants and mutations with powerful effects on genetic differentiation. A total of 5,548 genes private to SbxSh mapped to biological process GO enrichment terms; 34 of these genes mapped to root system development (GO: 0022622). Two of the root specific genes i.e., ROOT PRIMORDIUM DEFECTIVE 1 (RPD1; GeneID: 8054879) and RETARDED ROOT GROWTH (RRG, GeneID: 8072111), were found to exert direct effect on root growth and development. This is the first report on whole-genome resequencing of a sorghum panel that includes S. halepense genome. Mining the private variants and genes of this wild species can provide insights capable of boosting sorghum genetic improvement, particularly the perenniality trait that is compliant with agroecological practices, sustainable agriculture, and climate change resilience.
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Kong W, Nabukalu P, Cox TS, Goff V, Robertson JS, Pierce G, Lemke C, Compton R, Reeves J, Paterson AH. Comparative evolution of vegetative branching in sorghum. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0255922. [PMID: 34388196 PMCID: PMC8362987 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255922] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2021] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Tillering and secondary branching are two plastic traits with high agronomic importance, especially in terms of the ability of plants to adapt to changing environments. We describe a quantitative trait analysis of tillering and secondary branching in two novel BC1F2 populations totaling 246 genotypes derived from backcrossing two Sorghum bicolor x S. halepense F1 plants to a tetraploidized S. bicolor. A two-year, two-environment phenotypic evaluation in Bogart, GA and Salina, KS permitted us to identify major effect and environment specific QTLs. Significant correlation between tillering and secondary branching followed by discovery of overlapping sets of QTLs continue to support the developmental relationship between these two organs and suggest the possibility of pleiotropy. Comparisons with two other populations sharing S. bicolor BTx623 as a common parent but sampling the breadth of the Sorghum genus, increase confidence in QTL detected for these two plastic traits and provide insight into the evolution of morphological diversity in the Eusorghum clade. Correspondence between flowering time and vegetative branching supports other evidence in suggesting a pleiotropic effect of flowering genes. We propose a model to predict biomass weight from plant architecture related traits, quantifying contribution of each trait to biomass and providing guidance for future breeding experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- WenQian Kong
- Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America
- Department of Statistics, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America
| | | | - T. Stan Cox
- The Land Institute, Salina, Kansas, United States of America
| | - Valorie Goff
- Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Jon S. Robertson
- Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Gary Pierce
- Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Cornelia Lemke
- Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Rosana Compton
- Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Jaxk Reeves
- Department of Statistics, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Andrew H. Paterson
- Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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