Genetic transformation of Sorghum bicolor

Abstract

Great millet (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is cultivated across the world for food and fodder. It is typically grown in semiarid regions that are not suitable for cultivation of other major cereals. Sexual incompatibility and shortage of available genes in germplasm to combat biotic and abiotic stresses resulted in marginalized yields of this crop. Genetic modification of sorghum with agronomically useful genes can address this problem. Here, we tried to review and summarize the key aspects of sorghum transformation work being carried out so far by various research groups across the world. The approaches used and the obstacles in generating transgenic sorghum are also pointed out and discussed.

The potential of C4 grasses for cellulosic biofuel production

“…Thus for most of these grasses, the exception being maize, major progress is required in the development and optimization of transformation protocols. Reviews on the status of transformation of sorghum (Howe et al, 2006; Girijashankar and Swathisree, 2009), switchgrass (Somleva et al, 2002; Conger, 2003; Bouton, 2007; Burris et al, 2009; Xi et al, 2009; Saathoff et al, 2011), miscanthus (Wang et al, 2011; Engler and Jakob, 2013) and sugarcane (Santosa et al, 2004; Hotta et al, 2010) provide further information. However, transgenic approaches are regarded with great caution in dedicated bioenergy crops as well, as they are mostly outcrossing perennial grasses (Wang and Brummer, 2012).…”

Genetic transformation of eucalyptus

“…Except in few occasions such as the use of SNP markers for ccr gene which determine reduced microfibril angle (MFA) in E. nitens (Thumma et al 2005), the progress made by molecular breeding towards germplasm improvement of eucalyptus through genomics approach is minor, so far. Contrary to woody plants, food crops (example: Sorghum bicolor) and commercial field crops receive much research focus in the domain of genomics and genetic transformation (Girijashankar and Swathisree 2009). There are many scientific reports on successful introduction of foreign genes into food crops.…”

In vitro transformation of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L). R. BR.): Selection of chlorsulfuron-resistant plants and long term expression of the gus gene under the control of the emu promoter

“…Some examples include calli of Sorghum bicolor (Battraw and Hall, 1991;Girijashankar and Swathisree, 2009), Lolium perenne (Altpeter et al, 2000), T. eastivum (Sahrawat et al, 2003) and H. vulgare (Yadav et al, 2013) resistant to hygromycin or Kanamycin. This is also the case of calli of Z. mays (Nap et al, 2003) and S. officinarum (Singh et al, 2013) resistant to phosphinothricin.…”

“…For example, plants of Z. mays (Weymann et al,1993;Que et al, 2014), H. vulgare (Hagio et al, 1995;Yadav et al, 2013) and Oryza sativa (Dai et al, 2001;Sah et al, 2014), resistant to hygromycin; plants of Z. mays (Nap et al, 2003) and T. eastivum (Tassy et al, 2014) resistant to phosphinothricin and plants of Z. mays resistant to glyphosate (Qamar et al, 2015) have been obtained. Other examples include plants of Allium sativum, Z. mays and T. eastivum resistant to chlorsulfuron (Mee et al, 2002;Que et al, 2014); plants of Sorghum bicolor (Cass et al, 1997;Girijashankar and Swathisree, 2009) H. vulgare (Goedeke et al, 2007) and S. officinarum (Singh et al, 2013) resistant to kanamycin. Girijashankar et al (2005) also obtained plants of S. bicolor resistant to insects.…”