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
Description:

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.