Sorghum Fit for Fuel and Feed

Lignin is like a "cellular glue" that imparts rigidity and strength to plant tissues. It helps plants fend off attacking insects and pathogens. Alas, lignin also makes animal feed difficult to digest, and if the plant is a biofuel crop, it results in lower ethanol production. Scientists at the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and collaborators in universities have developed new, low-lignin sorghum germplasm lines to bolster the grain crop's value as both a livestock feed and ethanol resource.

Atlas bmr-12, one of 20 low-lignin lines the ARS team developed and tested in collaboration with University of Nebraska-Lincoln scientists scored higher on fiber digestibility than standard sorghum. This should result in higher milk production and higher beef gains when Atlas bmr-12 is fed to cattle. On the fuel front, the line's high fiber digestibility could also mean improved sorghum-to-ethanol conversion at processing plants. In addition, Atlas bmr-12 and another line, bmr-6, showed greater resistance to the Fusarium moniliforme fungus than a control group of standard sorghum. Atlas bmr-12 and bmr-6 owe their unique balance of fiber digestibility and disease resistance to two genes for the brown midrib trait.