Why Sequence Sorghum?
One of the world’s leading grain crops, sorghum is also an important model for tropical grasses of worldwide importance with a collective minimum economic impact of $69 billion U.S. per year. As a model for the tropical grasses, sorghum is a logical complement to Oryza (rice), the first monocot plant to be sequenced. Sorghum is representative of the tropical grasses in that it has “C4” photosynthesis, using a complex combination of biochemical and morphological specializations resulting in more efficient carbon assimilation at high temperatures. By contrast, rice is more representative of temperate grasses, using “C3” photosynthesis. In addition to its intrinsic value, the sorghum sequence will be a valuable reference for assembling and analyzing the fourfold larger genome of maize (corn), a tropical grass that is the leading U.S. fuel ethanol crop (sorghum is second). Sorghum is an even closer relative of sugarcane, arguably the most important biomass/biofuels crop worldwide with annu
