Members of the worldwide sorghum community met in 2004 at the Sorghum Genomics Planning Workshop. The workshop aimed to

1. obtain a status report on the development and accessibility of sorghum genome research information, technologies, and infrastructure;

2. identify future priorities and needs for sorghum genomics research;

3. better organize the sorghum community; and

4. foster sorghum improvement.

The workshop report is now available online on the Plant Physiology Journal's website.

Sorghum is the fifth most important cereal crop in the world, providing food, feed, fiber, and fuel to much of the developing world. It is closely related to major crops such as sugarcane and pearl millet, and information on its genome may provide a better roadmap for studying the domestication of cereal crops. The complete genome of sorghum comprises about 700 million base pairs, 60% larger than that of rice, but one fourth the size of the maize genome.

Workshop participants proposed a three-stage strategy to complete the sequencing of the sorghum genome. This strategy would include gene space characterization, which would progress into a gold-standard physical map, and which would eventually end in a complete genome sequence. Participants also recognized the need for a unified sorghum database, similar to those for maize (the Maize GDB) and rice (Gramene) which are available online.

Africa is also sorghum's home, and scientists see the sequencing project as "an attractive vehicle for engagement of the African scientific community in genomics and its applications, in particular regarding documentation and analysis of in situ diversity that is presently inaccessible to Western scientists."

Read the article at www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/reprint/138/4/1898