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AOBPreview originally published online on September 1, 2007
Annals of Botany 2007 100(5):975-989; doi:10.1093/aob/mcm192
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© 2007 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Domestication to Crop Improvement: Genetic Resources for Sorghum and Saccharum (Andropogoneae)

Sally L. Dillon2, Frances M. Shapter1, Robert J. Henry1,*, Giovanni Cordeiro1, Liz Izquierdo1 and L. Slade Lee1

1 Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia
2 Australian Tropical Crops and Forages Centre, Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Biloela, QLD 4715, Australia

* For correspondence. E-mail robert.henry{at}scu.edu.au

Received: 28 May 2007    Returned for revision: 2 July 2007    Accepted: 24 July 2007    Published electronically: 1 September 2007

Background: Both sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) are members of the Andropogoneae tribe in the Poaceae and are each other's closest relatives amongst cultivated plants. Both are relatively recent domesticates and comparatively little of the genetic potential of these taxa and their wild relatives has been captured by breeding programmes to date. This review assesses the genetic gains made by plant breeders since domestication and the progress in the characterization of genetic resources and their utilization in crop improvement for these two related species.

Genetic Resources: The genome of sorghum has recently been sequenced providing a great boost to our knowledge of the evolution of grass genomes and the wealth of diversity within S. bicolor taxa. Molecular analysis of the Sorghum genus has identified close relatives of S. bicolor with novel traits, endosperm structure and composition that may be used to expand the cultivated gene pool. Mutant populations (including TILLING populations) provide a useful addition to genetic resources for this species. Sugarcane is a complex polyploid with a large and variable number of copies of each gene. The wild relatives of sugarcane represent a reservoir of genetic diversity for use in sugarcane improvement. Techniques for quantitative molecular analysis of gene or allele copy number in this genetically complex crop have been developed. SNP discovery and mapping in sugarcane has been advanced by the development of high-throughput techniques for ecoTILLING in sugarcane. Genetic linkage maps of the sugarcane genome are being improved for use in breeding selection. The improvement of both sorghum and sugarcane will be accelerated by the incorporation of more diverse germplasm into the domesticated gene pools using molecular tools and the improved knowledge of these genomes.

Key words: Genomics, sorghum, Sorghum bicolor, sugarcane, Saccharum officinarum, crop improvement, domestication


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[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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