Metabolomic, photoprotective, and photosynthetic acclimatory responses to post‐flowering drought in sorghum

Abstract

Climate change is globally affecting rainfall patterns, necessitating the improvement of drought tolerance in crops. Sorghum bicolor is a relatively drought‐tolerant cereal. Functional stay‐green sorghum genotypes can maintain green leaf area and efficient grain filling during terminal post‐flowering water deprivation, a period of ~10 weeks. To obtain molecular insights into these characteristics, two drought‐tolerant genotypes, BTx642 and RTx430, were grown in replicated control and terminal post‐flowering drought field plots in California's Central Valley. Photosynthetic, photoprotective, and water dynamics traits were quantified and correlated with metabolomic data collected from leaves, stems, and roots at multiple timepoints during control and drought conditions. Physiological and metabolomic data were then compared to longitudinal RNA sequencing data collected from these two genotypes. The unique metabolic and transcriptomic response to post‐flowering drought in sorghum supports a role for the metabolite galactinol in controlling photosynthetic activity through regulating stomatal closure in post‐flowering drought. Additionally, in the functional stay‐green genotype BTx642, photoprotective responses were specifically induced in post‐flowering drought, supporting a role for photoprotection in the molecular response associated with the functional stay‐green trait. From these insights, new pathways are identified that can be targeted to maximize yields under growth conditions with limited water.