Biotechnological and Genetic innovations to Enhance Sorghum Adaptation under Climate Change

Zhifang Wang^1,2Jingzhen Wang^3,4Ming Cheng⁵Yiming Du⁶Ian Douglas Godwin^5,7Lingqiang Wang^3,4Peng LV^1,2*Guoquan Liu^5,7*

• ¹Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Shijiazhuang, China
• ²Institute of Millet Crops, Shijiazhuang, China
• ³Guangxi University, Nanning, China
• ⁴College of Agriculture, Nanning, China
• ⁵The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
• ⁶Hebei Youth Cadres Administrative College, Shijiazhuang, China
• ⁷Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, Saint Lucia, Australia

Modern society is facing unprecedented global challenges, particularly climate change and food insecurity, which are intensifying the demand for crops capable of maintaining high yields under heat, drought, and salinity stress. Enhancing crop productivity and adaptation under climate change have thus become a global priority for agriculture research. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench), the fifth most important cereal crop worldwide, is increasingly recognized for its potential to strengthen food security, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Its inherent tolerance to harsh environmental conditions makes it a promising candidate for sustainable agriculture. Recent biotechnological and genetic innovations in sorghum, including key gene discovery for agronomic traits, genotype-independent transformation using WUS2 and BBM, RNA interference (RNAi) for improving grain quality, CRISPR-based and transgene-free genome editing, and emerging nanobiotechnologies, have been developed, applied and evolved to increase resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, grain yield, biomass, and nutritional quality. Those innovations have enabled precise manipulation of sorghum’s genome, acceleration of breeding programs, and improvement of sorghum performance under environmental stress. Moreover, cutting-edge biotechnological and genetic innovations, such as nanobiotechnology, ultimate genotyping, and synthetic apomixis, have demonstrated immense potential for future sorghum development and improvement. Collectively, through integration of biotechnological and genetic innovations, the better sorghum lines can be developed with significantly enhanced adaptability, productivity, and nutritional value in the face of global climate challenges. This review highlights the pivotal role of innovation and provides a comprehensive overview of current research trends in sorghum to mitigate climate change, enhance adaptation, and strengthen global food security.