Manhattan, Kansas
August 24, 2007
A recent $1 million grant from the
Kansas State University
Targeted Excellence program will promote sorghum research and
the development of superior varieties for the sorghum industry.
Kansas has long been the No. 1 grain sorghum producer in the
nation, accounting for nearly half of the annual U.S. crop. In
turn, the U.S. is the world´s largest producer of grain sorghum
with about 300 million bushels per year. In 2006, sales of grain
sorghum pumped $487 million into the Kansas economy, according
to the Kansas Sorghum Producers Association. The latest
projections by the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service
indicate that Kansas growers are on track to produce 192.4
million bushels of grain sorghum this year.
The funds support a four-year research project to study sorghum
characteristics, said Frank White, a professor of plant
pathology with K-State Research and Extension and the project
leader.
"The Sorghum Translational Genomics Program aims to identify
genes for use in sorghum improvement for drought and disease
tolerance, alternative fuel production, and human nutrition,"
White said. The project will work in concert with K-State´s
Center for Sorghum Improvement, which was established in 2003
and the Great Plains Sorghum Improvement and Utilization Center,
created in 2006.
Working with White is an interdisciplinary group of researchers,
including Clare Nelson, an associate professor also in plant
pathology, and Mitch Tuinstra and Jianming Yu, respectively
professor and assistant professor in agronomy. Chris Little, an
assistant professor in plant pathology, brings additional
sorghum disease expertise to the team. Other researchers at
K-State, as well as scientists at Cornell, Texas A&M and the
U.S. Department of
Agriculture, will be involved in the project.
"Grain sorghum is a good crop for Kansas because of its drought
tolerance and its use as livestock feed," said White, who
specializes in molecular genetics. In other parts of the world,
especially Africa and India, grain sorghum is an important food
staple.
The researchers will begin by determining the nucleotide
sequences of millions of random DNA fragments from each of eight
diverse sorghum lines. They will then piece the sequences
together with computer tools that assess their similarities and
differences.
A big advantage the team has, said Yu, is that the sorghum
genome has already been sequenced.
"The reference sequence will give us a template on which to
assemble the short sequences," he said.
Next, the scientists will align the eight reassembled genomes
with one another to identify tens of thousands of DNA
differences between them. These differences, known as single
nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs ("snips"), will be tested in a
larger panel of 300 diverse sorghums to determine whether any of
them can account for variation in agronomic traits.
The same approach is being used in humans to track down
disease-causing gene mutations, Yu said. The team hopes its work
will complement research under way at other institutions.
Researchers in India, for example, are working on a different
300-line diversity panel, Nelson said.
"When we´re finished, we´ll know more about the genomes of these
eight sorghums than is known about almost any other crop
genome," Nelson added. "Once markers are identified, we will be
able to determine a plant´s genetic makeup."
In addition to trait linkage analysis, the work will help the
breeding process for varieties that carry those traits that are
important for growers," White said.
"We think the land-grant university of the leading sorghum state
should be the leader in applied sorghum genome research," Nelson
said.
In addition to the long-term benefits to growers and consumers,
undergraduate and graduate students will be involved in the
project, which will enrich their education, White said. The
scientists also plan to take what they learn in the lab and the
field and convey the information to others through seminars and
a public database and Web portal.
The research team will work with elementary school educators to
design and implement a program to bring genetics and plant
biology into elementary school classrooms. More information
about the Sorghum Translational Genomics Program is available at
http://coding.plantpath.ksu.edu/stgp/.
K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas
State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative
Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute
useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by
county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county
Extensionoffices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and
regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the
K-State campus in Manhattan. |
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