Development and Breeding of Herbicide‐Resistant Sorghum for Effective Cereal‐Legume Intercropping
Weeds bring a serious challenge to crop production, and herbicides is the most effective and economic way to manage it in field. Sorghum is a critical crop for staple food, fodder, and biofuel. However, the lack of herbicide-resistant sorghum germplasm severely impedes its production. Here, we conducted a large-scale screening and identified 13 sorghum mutant lines resistant to imidazolinone (IMI) herbicides. Two unique mutation sites in SbALS (acetolactate synthase), thus namely Sbals-1 (A93T) and Sbals-2 (S624N) are discovered, both enhance sorghum tolerance to imazamox. Notably, under high concentrations of imazamox, sbals-1 presented a superior growth phenotype and elevated SbALS activity than sbals-2, a difference that can be attributed to the predicted protein structures. Breeding with Sbals, both grain- and grass-type sorghum, shows great weed control and field performance. The herbicide imazamox resistance is further evaluated in a soybean population for sorghum-soybean strip intercropping, identifying 123 highly resistant soybean varieties. Field intercropping tests indicated health growth of both soybean and sorghum lines post-imazamox treatment, which enhance field clearance of weed. This study, therefore, provides valuable insights not only for herbicide-resistant sorghum breeding but also for the successful implementation of efficient and sustainable cereal-legume intercropping systems.
Authors
- Chen-Bo Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3819-1458)
- Cuo Mei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8523-0619)
- Xianlin Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7918-2908)
- Ran Xia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5165-7956)
- Wan‐Ke Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3475-2852)
- Chunrui Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8170-5509)
- Shou‐Yi Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3557-4245)
- Feifei Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1984-2462)
- Jianbo Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2637-1929)
- Lu Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0442-5730)
- Xuefeng Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7783-9942)
- Yuhang Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7958-4659)
- Qingshan Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1655-2210)
- Qi Xie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8262-9093)
- Mingliang Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8799-2659)
- Dan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7867-6981)
- Chao Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8380-5583)
- Sanyuan Tang
- Jinsong Zhang
- Zuyong Luo
- Sen Yang
Institutions
- Northeast Agricultural University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Sinovac Biotech (CN)
- Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Syngenta (China) (CN)
- China Agricultural University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Science
- Published
- 2025-05-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202503083
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Agronomic Practices and Intercropping Systems
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.51
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- National Key Research and Development Program of China