Breeding Sorghum for Cool Climates: Adaptation and Quality Traits

Sorghum is one of the world’s most important grain crops, used for food, feed, biofuel, and fiber. A C4 plant originating from subtropical regions, it has, over recent decades, been adapted to temperate climates above 55°N and to marginal regions without irrigation. All state-of-the-art breeding tools can be employed, and by leveraging a wide range of genetic resources, sorghum can be adapted to low temperatures during germination, saline soils, drought, and reduced nitrogen inputs. Sorghum is traditionally divided into five races with distinct specializations, including sweet sorghum that accumulates sugar in the stem, as well as types used for grain, biomass, and fiber production. Sorghum can be regarded as a future-proof crop capable of tolerating the adverse effects imposed by climate change.

This Research Topic aims to highlight recent successes in breeding sorghum for tolerance to abiotic stresses such as low temperature, salinity, and drought. We focus on sorghum as a multi-purpose crop, emphasizing trait improvement for biomass, fiber, and stem sugar, with applications for farmers, the construction industry, and biorefineries. We welcome studies encompassing classical genetics, mutation screening, site-directed mutagenesis, and hybrid development, as well as other advanced breeding methodologies to address outcrossing in this diploid species and to accelerate time to market.

We invite articles on the breeding and adaptation of sorghum for low-temperature regions and long day lengths, and for tolerance to saline soils and improved drought recovery. Target quality traits include fiber, sugar, biorefinery suitability, animal feed, and industrial products. We welcome all article types that contribute to (but are not limited to) the following topics:

• Adaptation to cool climates;

• Hybrid sorghum genetics;

• Mutation breeding;

• Biotechnology:

• Marker-assisted selection;

• Plant genetic resources;

• Field evaluation of germplasm.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Classic Breeding, Mutation Breeding, Biotechnology, Genetics, Plant Genetic Resources, Hybrid Seed Production, Outcrossing, Marker Assisted Selection, Abiotic Stress, Salt-Tolerance, Drought-Tolerance, Cold Tolerance, Ligno-Cellulose, Fibre, Sugar

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.