Date Time
Early breeding reduced harmful mutations in sorghum
When humans first domesticated maize some 9,000 years ago, those early breeding efforts led to an increase in harmful mutations to the crop’s genome compared to their wild relatives, which more recent modern breeding has helped to correct.
Nadia Shakoor/Provided
The image shows variation in flower head architecture of the different sorghum races, including (from left to right) bicolor, guinea, caudatum, kafir and durra.
A new comparative study investigates whether the same patterns found in maize occurred in sorghum, a gluten-free grain grown for both livestock and human consumption. The researchers were surprised to find the opposite is true: Harmful mutations in sorghum landraces (early domesticated crops) actually decreased compared to their wild relatives.