Understanding how environmental factors modulate starch structure and functionality in sorghum is critical for optimizing its application in the food processing and fermentation industries. In this study, two sorghum cultivars with distinct starch types—Liaonian 3 (LN3, waxy) and Liaoza 82 (LZ82, non-waxy)—were cultivated across four major ecological regions in China to systematically investigate the combined effects of temperature and precipitation on grain composition, starch molecular structure, and processing properties. Comprehensive analyses, including scanning electron microscopy, molecular weight profiling, chain-length distribution, crystallinity, molecular order, and thermal/pasting behaviors, demonstrated that precipitation is the predominant environmental factor driving starch biosynthesis and structural assembly. High precipitation levels promoted amylopectin accumulation, shorter chain formation, increased branching degree, and higher crystallinity and molecular order, ultimately enhancing starch thermal stability and paste consistency. Genotypic differences further modulated starch structural patterns and environmental responsiveness, with LN3 consistently exhibiting higher amylopectin content, crystallinity, double-helix proportion, and gelatinization enthalpy compared to LZ82. Correlation analyses revealed genotype-dependent regulatory relationships linking environmental cues to starch structure and processing functionality. These findings provide a comprehensive framework elucidating the environmental regulation of starch structure–function relationships in sorghum, offering theoretical insights for climate-resilient breeding and functional starch development.

Drought stress is one of the most critical abiotic stresses restricting global crop production, and sorghum plays an important role in arid and semi-arid areas due to its inherent drought tolerance compared to many other cereals. However, significant variation in drought tolerance exists among different sorghum genotypes, which provides an opportunity to dissect the underlying mechanisms. In this study, a drought-tolerant sorghum line (LNR-6) and a drought-sensitive line (LR-2381) were used for comparative analysis. Plants were grown under two water regimes: well-watered conditions (CK, soil water content maintained at 40%) and drought stress (soil water content reduced to 24%). Integrated transcriptomic and non-targeted metabolomic analyses were conducted to investigate the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying sorghum drought tolerance. Phenotypic analysis showed that drought stress significantly reduced plant height and chlorophyll content in the drought-sensitive genotype, whereas the drought-tolerant genotype showed only minor changes. Transcriptome analysis identified several enriched functional categories of differentially expressed genes between the two genotypes under drought stress. Among them, genes associated with limonene and pinene degradation, photosynthesis, and photosynthesis-antenna proteins were significantly enriched and may be involved in drought-response regulation. Metabolomic analysis revealed significant accumulation of flavonoids and phenylpropanoids under drought conditions. KEGG pathway enrichment further indicated that flavone and flavonol biosynthesis, flavonoid biosynthesis, and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis were the most significantly enriched metabolic pathways. Overall, these findings enhance our understanding of the coordinated transcriptional and metabolic responses underlying drought tolerance in sorghum.

BBM (baby boom) is an important embryogenesis transcription factor in plants, which is valuable in molecular research and could improve the transformation efficiency in recalcitrant species. However, in time and dose aspect, which stage and how much BBM transcription factor is necessary for stimulating embryogenesis is still largely unknown in Brassicas. GR system and dexamethasone are important to timing and quantitative analysis of transcription factors. In this study, BP and LR reaction were applied to build czn3999-35s: Omega-BBM-GR construct, which was transformed into E. coli DH5 α and Agrobacterium C58 competent cells by electric shock transformation respectively. The correct strain verified by PCR digestion reaction was kept in glycerol and stored at -80°C. Brassica napus 12075 cotyledon petioles were used as recipient, and eventually 22 transgenic plantlets were obtained from agrobacterium mediated bulk-way transformation. We describe Bulk-Way transformation protocol in detail, and provides valuable materials for analyzing dose and time effect of BBM in Brassicas.

Somatic embryogenesis (SE) is an important type of plant regeneration, which can be used as a recipient system of genome editing. It is vital to optimize the SE system to improve the mutated somatic cells regenerated into fertile plants after transformation. 2,4-D was used as inducer of somatic embryogenesis from mature seeds. Arabidopsis wild type Col-0 and ABA biosynthesis double mutant nced6 / 9 were grown in 15°C and 25°C respectively, to investigate the effect of sampled plants growth conditions on the SE rate of their seeds and to optimize SE protocol. On the other hand, construct Pbi121-U6-26-Cas9-sgRNA-ELF6-FastR was used for genome editing. The positive seeds after floral dip were separated into two parts: some for sowing and the rest seeds went though SE induction. The efficiency of gene editing was compared by sequencing. Our results show that the SE rate of nced6 / 9 seeds from 25°C was significantly lower than that from 15°C. When transgenic positive seeds were sown directly, the target sequence was not found to be edited; However, when seeds went though somatic embryogenesis protocol, gene editing were found around PAM sequence, suggesting that SE system could improve gene editing after transformation. The sampled plants grown at low temperature (15°C) may affect SE ability of their seeds by ABA level. The mature seed somatic embryogenesis system can improve the efficiency of gene editing.

Slightly saline–alkali soils represent an important but underutilized land resource in northern China, and optimizing planting patterns is essential for improving sorghum productivity under such marginal conditions. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of wide–narrow row spacing combined with different planting densities on the canopy structure, photosynthetic performance, and grain yield of brewing sorghum. A field experiment was conducted from 2022 to 2024 at the Yulin Experimental Station in Shaanxi Province, China, using the brewing sorghum cultivar Liaonuo 16. Four planting treatments were established: wide–narrow row spacing (80/60 cm) with three planting densities (105,000, 112,500, and 120,000 plants ha⁻¹) and uniform row spacing (60 cm) with 112,500 plants ha⁻¹ as the control. Wide–narrow row spacing combined with higher planting density significantly improved canopy structure and light interception. The treatment with 120,000 plants ha⁻¹ increased light interception in the middle and lower canopy layers during flowering and grain filling by 8.7% and 25.58%, respectively, and enhanced total canopy light interception by 3.33% and 1.96%. Moreover, the leaf area index and photosynthetic capacity were improved, resulting in a 10.1% increase in grain yield compared with the uniform row spacing treatment. Wide–narrow row spacing combined with a planting density of 120,000 plants ha⁻¹ effectively optimizes canopy structure and enhances sorghum productivity in slightly saline–alkali soils, providing a practical cultivation strategy for improving resource use efficiency in marginal farmlands.