Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is a vital cereal crop widely cultivated in arid and semi-arid regions around the world due to its remarkable ability to withstand drought, heat, and poor soil conditions. As a staple food for millions of people and a key source of animal feed and bioenergy, sorghum's resilience is crucial for ensuring food security and sustainable agricultural practices. Current research has made significant advances in understanding the physiological and genetic factors that contribute to sorghum’s stress tolerance. However, despite these advancements, critical knowledge gaps and bottlenecks remain in fully elucidating the complex mechanisms of sorghum’s stress responses and their direct impact on crop quality and yield.

Recent technological advancements, such as omics approaches—including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics—along with systems biology and gene editing technologies like CRISPR/Cas9, provide unprecedented opportunities to deepen our understanding of sorghum’s stress tolerance mechanisms. By integrating these novel techniques, we aim to unravel the intricate networks and identify key genes involved in stress resilience, enabling the development of improved sorghum varieties. This research seeks to broaden our knowledge in this field and facilitate the application of innovative breeding and biotechnological strategies to enhance sorghum's resilience and quality, ultimately contributing to global food security and sustainable agriculture.

The goal of this Research Topic is to advance our understanding of sorghum's resilience to abiotic stress. We aim to explore the mechanisms underlying physiological, biochemical, and genetic responses, identify key stress-responsive genes, and assess the effects of stress on quality formation to improve sorghum through breeding and biotechnological strategies.

We welcome submissions of all article types accepted in Frontiers in Plant Science. We encourage contributions that address the following themes but are not limited to:
• Physiological and biochemical responses to abiotic stress and adaptation strategies
• Molecular, genetic, and epigenetic mechanisms of stress tolerance in sorghum
• Omics approaches and systems biology for understanding stress responses and resilience mechanisms
• Genetic engineering and biotechnological approaches, including CRISPR/Cas9, for enhancing stress tolerance
• Impact of abiotic stress on nutritional quality, grain yield, and post-harvest stability

Are you interested in contributing a manuscript to this Research Topic?

Stress Tolerance in Sorghum: Molecular Mechanisms, Gene Discovery, and Quality Dynamics