Information embargoed until March 13, 2025, at 09:00 am (time in Barcelona, Spain)
Sorghum is an increasingly important crop for animal and human nutrition, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, due to its natural resistance to drought and high temperatures. CRAG researchers have identified the molecular mechanisms responsible for drought resistance in sorghum and developed tools that could be used in biotechnological applications. These advances could combat the effects of climate change, reduce dependence on imports and improve food security for human consumption.
Bellaterra (Barcelona), 13 March 2025
In a series of three recent studies, a team led by CSIC researcher at CRAG Ana I. Caño-Delgado have made significant progress in understanding the molecular mechanisms and improving the breeding of sorghum, the world's fifth most cultivated cereal, which is particularly important in arid and semi-arid regions. The importance of this cereal lies in its role in the future of human and animal nutrition, providing a sustainable alternative for areas facing water scarcity.
Sorghum's growing importance
Sorghum is increasingly recognised as a staple food in many parts of the world, including outside Africa where it has been cultivated for centuries, due to its multiple nutritional benefits and resistance to adverse climatic conditions. In Europe, sorghum cultivation is on the rise and is being promoted as an alternative for crop rotation especially in regions prone to water scarcity. The European Union is actively promoting sorghum cultivation as a climate-resilient crop, with a 57% increase in total sorghum production during the last decade. France, in particular, is at the forefront of this trend with 103.000 hectares dedicated to grain sorghum cultivation last year. Meanwhile Spain is a major importer of sorghum in Europe, mainly for animal feed but with prospects for human food in the future. In 2020, 158.000 tonnes were imported into Spain, so an increase in its cultivation on the territory could reduce dependence on imports. For reference, Spain imported 303.000 tonnes of barley in the last six months, making it the third most imported crop.
CRAG's scientific contributions
CRAG's research efforts are at the vanguard of advancing sorghum science, focusing on improving, even further, its adaptability to stress conditions and enhancing its handling in the laboratory for future breeding processes. For the last 20 years, the research group led by Ana I. Caño-Delgado has been dedicated to the study of this cereal and has received numerous grants, including an ERC PoC from the European Research Council (ERC). In the last six months, the group has published three scientific articles of great importance to the sector.
In the first of these three studies, published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal, the research team identified that mutations in the protein Sorghum bicolor brassinosteroid receptor, SbBRI1, confer drought tolerance by altering phenylpropanoid metabolism. This finding highlights a molecular mechanism for enhancing drought resistance in sorghum, a critical trait for climate-resilient agriculture.
A second work, published in The Plant Journal, detailed a significant advancement in sorghum biotechnology: an efficient sorghum transformation method using a ternary vector system combined with morphogenic regulators. Previous tools and methods were not effective enough for studying certain varieties of sorghum, posing a significant challenge for scientists and breeders. This new protocol solves this problem by allowing for highly efficient transformation using Agrobacterium tumefaciens and enables the application of new breeding techniques like gene editing to accelerate crop improvement. This technology provides a useful tool for creating and studying mutants of interest with a very high efficiency in the transformation of recalcitrant sorghum (varieties that are resistant to genetic transformation), reaching 2-fold increase of the transformation efficiency.
Juan B. Fontanet-Manzaneque, lead author of both studies, underscored the significance of these breakthroughs in sorghum cultivation: “Our goal was to equip the sorghum community with not only cutting-edge molecular tools to accelerate sorghum breeding but also some key target genes essential for developing drought-resistant crops”.
The third study, which is published today in New Phytologist Journal, characterizes the role of SbBRI1 in root development, specifically in the meristem region, linking BRI1 to cell wall metabolism and demonstrating that the sorghum SbBRI1 protein plays functionally conserved roles in plant growth and development. The root development is crucial for the overall growth and health of the plant and plays a role in how the plant responds to environmental stressors.
Andrés Rico-Medina, first author of the study, highlighted the implemented technique: “We adapted the staining and imaging protocols that are used in model plants like Arabidopsis to be useful for studies in Sorghum.” He also noted that: “This adaptation serves to bridge the gap between laboratory-based drought studies and a more agronomic context, thereby facilitating the practical application of these scientific advancements.”
Socio-economic and political implications
Sorghum is increasingly considered as a crucial crop for climate change adaptation due to its tolerance to high temperatures and drought, especially compared to maize, which is the most widely cultivated cereal in Europe and is highly susceptible to water stress. Studies show that the importance of sorghum in Europe is expected to increase because of climate change. Also, the expansion of sorghum cultivation in Spain could create new economic opportunities for farmers, reducing dependence on imports and boosting local agricultural production. In Catalonia, more than 100.000 tonnes of sorghum were produced in 2023, more than 90% of which was destined for animal feed.
Furthermore, sorghum is a naturally gluten-free cereal, a particularly relevant characteristic in the food industry. Its adaptability and high nutritional value make it a key crop for improving food security. The rising demand for sorghum for human consumption, with an increase by around 6% in demand in 2024, highlights its potential to improve nutrition, especially when research is leading to new varieties of sorghum.
Ana I. Caño-Delgado, leader of the group, said: “This research represents a significant opportunity for CRAG to establish technology transfer projects, to encourage public-private collaboration, and to highlight the excellent work of our researchers”
These three groundbreaking scientific advancements by CRAG’s researchers not only pave the way for more sustainable and productive sorghum cultivation but also mark a critical step forward in addressing global food security and nutrition challenges. Moreover, this finding is relevant for other essential crops such as maize, wheat and rice, because they also contain brassinosteroid signalling pathways. This creates an opportunity for climate-smart agriculture, with more resilient and sustainable varieties.
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Reference Articles:
Andrés Rico-Medina, Natalie Laibach, Juan B. Fontanet-Manzaneque, David Blasco-Escámez, Fidel Lozano-Elena, Damiano Martignago, and Ana I. Caño-Delgado. Molecular and physiological characterization of brassinosteroid receptor BRI1 mutants in Sorghum bicolor. New Phytologist, https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.20443
Juan B. Fontanet-Manzaneque, Jari Haeghebaert, Stijn Aesaert, Griet Coussens, Laurens Pauwels, Ana I. Caño-Delgado. Efficient sorghum and maize transformation using a ternary vector system combined with morphogenic regulators. The Plant Journal, https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.17101
Juan B. Fontanet-Manzaneque, Natalie Laibach, Iván Herrero-García, Veredas Coleto-Alcudia, David Blasco-Escámez, Chen Zhang, Luis Orduña, Saleh Alseekh, Sara Miller, Nanna Bjarnholt, Alisdair R. Fernie, José Tomás Matus, Ana I. Caño-Delgado. Untargeted mutagenesis of brassinosteroid receptor SbBRI1 confers drought tolerance by altering phenylpropanoid metabolism in Sorghum bicolor. Plant Biotechnology Journal, https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.14461
About the authors and funding of the study: Ana I. Caño-Delgado is a recipient of a BIO2016-78150-P grant funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and Agencia Estatal de Investigación (MINECO/AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), and a European Research Council, ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2015-CoG – 683163). Juan B. Fontanet-Manzaneque is supported by the grant 2017SGR718 from Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya and by the ERC- 2015-CoG – 683163 granted to the Ana I. Caño-Delgado laboratory. Natalie Laibach has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 945043 and was additionally supported by grant CEX2019-000902-S funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. Andrés Rico-Medina received a predoctoral fellowship from Fundación Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno. David Blasco-Escámez and Damiano Martignago are funded by the ERC-2015-CoG – 683163 granted to the Ana I. Caño-Delgado laboratory. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No 683163). This work was supported by the CERCA Programme from the Generalitat de Catalunya. We acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), through the “Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D” 2016-2019 (SEV-2015-0533).
About the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG): CRAG is a centre that forms part of the CERCA system of research centres of the Government of Catalonia (Spain), and which was established as a partnership of four institutions: the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Institute for Agri-Food Research and Technology (IRTA), the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the University of Barcelona (UB). CRAG’s research spans from basic research in plant and farm animal molecular biology, to applications of molecular approaches for breeding of species important for agriculture and food production in close collaboration with industry. In 2020, CRAG was recognized for the second time as a "Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence” by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
About New Phytologist: New Phytologist is a leading international journal focusing on high quality, original research across the broad spectrum of plant sciences, from intracellular processes through to global environmental change. The journal is owned by the New Phytologist Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of plant science. https://www.newphytologist.org/
Materials:
1_ root.jpg: Root meristem region of sorghum showing cell division (Credit: CRAG).
2_ authors.jpg: On the left Andrés Rico, first author of the study, and on the right Ana I. Caño-Delgado, who led the study (Credit: CRAG).
3_ sorghum.jpg: Sorghum plant (Credit: CRAG).
Materials can be downloaded here: https://t.ly/o-yMm
For more information and interviews:
Muriel Arimon
Communication Department
Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG)
+34 93 563 66 00 Ext 3033
+34 600 008 159
email: muriel.arimon@cragenomica.es
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