Open Access

REVIEW

Genome Editing of Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench: Current Status and Future Applications

Lev A. Elkonin^1,*, Grigoriy A. Gerashchenkov²

1 Federal Centre of Agriculture Research of the South-East Region, Saratov, Russia
2 Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics, Subdivision of the Ufa Federal Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ufa, Russia

* Corresponding Author: Lev A. Elkonin. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Genome Editing and Crop Breeding: Ushering in a New Era of Plant Improvement)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2026, 95(8), 3 https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2026.081317

Received 27 February 2026; Accepted 09 May 2026; Issue published 28 August 2026

Abstract

Sorghum is a heat- and drought-tolerant cereal crop used for feed and food purposes in more than 100 countries. Sorghum becomes highly important in conditions of climate warming. The use of genome editing technologies is of paramount importance for this crop, which has a number of constraints in key agronomic traits that are difficult for improvement using conventional breeding. Application of genome editing for sorghum is limited due to problems of genetic transformation; however, recent advances in this field have increased the efficiency of the genome editing procedure in sorghum. This review summarizes recent achievements in the field of sorghum genetic transformation and results of site-directed mutagenesis in this crop, such as obtaining mutants with increased kafirin digestibility, apomixis, resistance to Striga hermontica, modification of plant architecture and “stay-green” trait, fragrant leaves and seeds, and others. The review also discusses the biosafety of edited plants and outlines prospects for further work on the genetic improvement of sorghum using genome editing technologies, and its application in practical breeding.

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Keywords

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