“…In sorghum, several distinct mutants were produced by chemical mutagenesis (Porter et al 1978), of which three mutants, bmr-6, bmr-12, and bmr-18, affect lignin content and composition in cell walls, and appeared to be the most promising for improvement of forage quality (Cherney et al 1991, Porter et al 1978. Biochemical analysis has suggested that the alteration of lignin content or composition in these mutants is caused by reductions of the activities of enzymes involved in lignin biosynthesis, such as phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT), and cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) during the middle stages of lignification (40 to 60 days after sowing) (Bucholtz et al 1980, Palmer et al 2008, Pillonel et al 1991, Tsuruta et al 2003. In addition, Saballos et al (2009) and Sattler et al (2009) reported that base substitutions resulting in premature stop codons were identified in the coding regions of the genes encoding CAD in sorghum bmr-6 mutants and the binding sites of the enzyme have been changed, which caused the loss of enzymatic activity.…”