Sorghum bicolor

Owned by Efrain Cuellar (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Apr 02, 2019 by Leonore Reiser

Image Credit:

Larry Rana, USDA - United States Department of Agriculture, Image Number: 94cs2601, CD0461-69


Scientific name: Sorghum bicolor

Common name(s): Sorghum

Name as shown in Phylogenes: Sorghum

Ploidy: Diploid

Description:

Sorghum bicolor, commonly known as sorghum, is a cereal relative of maize and rice. It is one of the top five cereal crops world wide and grown for grain, forage and as a sweet crop. It is native to Africa and quite drought tolerant.

Because it produces copious amounts of sugars, it is a major biofuel crop. The sorghum genome is used in comparative genomics studies especially for close relatives such as maize, which has a more complex and repetitive genome.

Reference(s): 

  1. Paterson AH, Bowers JE, Bruggmann R, Dubchak I, Grimwood J, Gundlach H, Haberer G, et al. The Sorghum bicolor genome and the diversification of grasses. Nature. 2009 Jan 29;457(7229):551-6. doi: 10.1038/nature07723.

Genome Database(s):