The length of sorghum mesocotyl plays a vital role in seed emergence from the soil, which is the foundation of healthy growth. In this study, we aimed to understand how exogenous auxin (IAA) promoted mesocotyl elongation of sorghum and its physiology mechanism. The results presented that exogenous IAA significantly promoted mesocotyl elongation in MS24B (short mesocotyl inbred line) by increasing the cell length, while with extra exogenous NPA (IAA inhibitor) application, the mesocotyl length presented a significant short phenotype. In Z210 (long mesocotyl inbred line), exogenous IAA had a slight effect on mesocotyl length elongation, while the NPA treatment decreased the mesocotyl length considerably. In MS24B, IAA treatment increased the activity of amylase to degrade starch to soluble sugar, and the activity of hexokinase was improved to consume the increased soluble sugar to offer more energy. The energy will help to increase the activity of PM H+-ATPase and the expression of expansin-related genes, which ultimately will promote the acidification of the plasma membrane in MS24B for cell elongation. Overall, the exogenous IAA functioned on the activation of energy metabolism, which in turn, inducted the acidification of the plasma membrane for mesocotyl elongation.

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Starch accumulation and the seven metabolic enzyme activities in sorghum grains with different starch contents were investigated under field conditions in Shenyang Agricultural University. The results indicated that the starch accumulation in Tieza17 (high starch content variety) and Liaoza11 (low starch content variety) grains could be fitted with logistic equation. The activities of sucrose synthase (SS), soluble starch synthase (SSS) and uridine diphosphate glucose pyrophosphorylase (UGPase) in Tieza17 were similar to those in Liaoza11. Adenosine diphosphate glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase) and granule-bound starch synthase (GBSS) activities in Tieza17 grains were consistently higher than those in Liaoza11 grains. Starch branching enzyme (SBE) and starch debranching enzyme (DBE) activities increased or decreased significantly between the two varieties at different filling stages. It is suggested that the differences in the activities of AGPase, GBSS, SBE and DBE and their tradeoff played an important role in regulating starch accumulation in sorghum grains. Bangladesh J. Bot. 51(2): 217-222, 2022 (June)