Accelerating crop improvement in sorghum, a staple food for people in semiarid regions across the developing world, is key to ensuring global food security in the context of climate change. To facilitate gene discovery and molecular breeding in sorghum, we have characterized ∼265,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 971 worldwide accessions that have adapted to diverse agroclimatic conditions. Using this genome-wide SNP map, we have characterized population structure with respect to geographic origin and morphological type and identified patterns of ancient crop diffusion to diverse agroclimatic regions across Africa and Asia. To better understand the genomic patterns of diversification in sorghum, we quantified variation in nucleotide diversity, linkage disequilibrium, and recombination rates across the genome. Analyzing nucleotide diversity in landraces, we find evidence of selective sweeps around starch metabolism genes, whereas in landrace-derived introgression lines, we find introgressions around known height and maturity loci. To identify additional loci underlying variation in major agroclimatic traits, we performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on plant height components and inflorescence architecture. GWAS maps several classical loci for plant height, candidate genes for inflorescence architecture. Finally, we trace the independent spread of multiple haplotypes carrying alleles for short stature or long inflorescence branches. This genome-wide map of SNP variation in sorghum provides a basis for crop improvement through marker-assisted breeding and genomic selection.Sorghum bicolor | quantitative trait locus | adaptation

Genome-environment associations and phenotypic analyses may reveal the basis of environmental adaptation.

inhibitors (BNIs). The chemical structure was analyzed which inhibited Nitrosomonas by blocking AMO and HAO enzymatic pathways. The BNIs release required the presence of NH 4 + in the root environment and the stimulatory effect of NH 4 + lasted 24 h. Unlike the hydrophobic-BNIs, the release of hydrophilic-BNIs declined at a rhizosphere pH >5.0; nearly 80 % of hydrophilic-BNI release was suppressed at pH ≥7.0. The released hydrophilic-BNIs were functionally stable within a pH range of 5.0 to 9.0. Sakuranetin showed a stronger inhibitory activity (ED 50 0.2 μM) than methyl 3-(4-hydroxyphenyl) propionate (MHPP) (ED 50 100 μM) (isolated from hydrophilic-BNIs fraction) in the in vitro culture-bioassay, but the activity was non-functional and ineffective in the soil-assay. Conclusions There is an urgent need to identify sorghum genetic stocks with high potential to release functional-BNIs for suppressing nitrification and to improve nitrogen use efficiency in sorghum-based production systems.

Abstract. A stay-green phenotype enhances the adaptation of sorghum to terminal drought conditions, although the underlying physiological mechanisms leading to the expression of stay-green remain unclear. Differences in tillering and leaf area at anthesis, transpiration efficiency (TE), water extraction, harvest index (HI) and yield under both terminal drought and fully-irrigated conditions were assessed in 29 introgression lines (IL) developed targeting stay-green QTLs Stg1, Stg2, Stg3, Stg4, StgA, and StgB in S35 background, and 16 IL developed targeting Stg1, Stg3, Stg4, and StgB in R16

Abstract. Post-rainy sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) production underpins the livelihood of millions in the semiarid tropics, where the crop is affected by drought. Drought scenarios have been classified and quantified using crop simulation. In this report, variation in traits that hypothetically contribute to drought adaptation (plant growth dynamics, canopy and root water conducting capacity, drought stress responses) were virtually introgressed into the most common post-rainy sorghum genotype, and the influence of these traits on plant growth, development, and grain and stover yield were simulated across different scenarios. Limited transpiration rates under high vapour pressure deficit had the highest positive effect on production, especially combined with enhanced water extraction capacity at the root level. Variability in leaf development (smaller canopy size, later plant vigour or increased leaf appearance rate) also increased grain yield under severe drought, although it caused a stover yield trade-off under milder stress. Although the leaf development response to soil drying varied, this trait had only a modest benefit on crop production across all stress scenarios. Closer dissection of the model outputs showed that under water limitation, grain yield was largely determined by the amount of water availability after anthesis, and this relationship became closer with stress severity. All traits investigated increased water availability after anthesis and caused a delay in leaf senescence and led to a 'stay-green' phenotype. In conclusion, we showed that breeding success remained highly probabilistic; maximum resilience and economic benefits depended on drought frequency. Maximum potential could be explored by specific combinations of traits.