Scientific Name | Sorghum bicolor | ||||
Common Name | broomcorn, milo; Andropogon sorghum; Sorghum bicolor subsp. bicolor; Sorghum nervosum; Sorghum saccharatum; Sorghum vulgare; | ||||
Taxonomy ID | 4558 | ||||
Lineage | cellular organisms > Viridiplantae > Streptophyta > Streptophytina > Embryophyta > Tracheophyta > Euphyllophyta > Spermatophyta > Magnoliophyta > Mesangiospermae > Liliopsida > Petrosaviidae > commelinids > Poales > Poaceae > PACMAD clade > Panicoideae > Andropogonodae > Andropogoneae > Sorghinae > Sorghum | ||||
External Links | NCBI; EBI; JGI; PLAZA; Specialized Database | ||||
Representative Assembly | Sorghum_bicolor_NCBIv3 | GCF_000003195.3 | DNA GFF RNA Protein |
Sorghum bicolor, commonly called sorghum and also known as great millet, durra, jowari, or milo, is a grass species cultivated for its grain, which is used for food, both for
animals and humans, and for ethanol production. Sorghum bicolor is native to Africa and is grown throughout the world. Sorghum is the fifth most important cereal crop in the world and third in the
United States. It exhibits C4 photosynthetic pathway. It is one of the
most drought-tolerant crop that grows well in semiarid regions. It
exhibits a deep root system and thick leaf wax. Both traits are
thought to help it survive hot dry conditions. Some members of this
genus are weeds but the domesticated varieties are used as human food
and fodder. Certain varieties are sweet where grain and stem are used
for making syrup, jaggery and sugar. Sorghum is also an interesting
model to study drought tolerance as it is known to grow even if water
becomes limiting showing a "stay-green" phenotype. Sorghum has a small
genome size of about 760 Mb with 2n=20 chromosomes, which falls between
the genomes of rice (~420 Mb) and that of the other crops with a larger
and more complex genome.