Insight Focus
A new sugarcane variety could boost yields in India. The SWEET13 gene also improves sugar storage in sorghum, enhancing its salt tolerance and biofuel potential. Research shows sweet sorghum’s value for both energy and nutrition.
New Sugarcane Variety Could Boost India’s Yields
A new sugarcane variety with a 14% sugar recovery rate, developed through biotechnology in Brazil, could improve biofuel yields from sugarcane, sorghum and other crops.
The SWEET13 gene regulates sugar transport within the plant. The new sugarcane variety has created some excitement in India, where the Vasantdada Sugar Institute is working on a locally adapted version. India’s Union Minister is urging the adoption of the variety in Maharashtra district to boost economic output. Currently, the average sugar recovery in Maharashtra is approximately 12.5%.
Sorghum Gains from SWEET13 Gene
The SWEET13 gene is also useful in other crops.
At Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), researchers discovered that the SWEET13 gene regulates sugar transport in sweet sorghum, enhancing sugar storage under salt stress. The breakthrough could improve biofuel yields and food security by enabling sorghum to thrive in saline soils.
KIT noted that sorghum millet is seen as the crop plant of the future, as it builds up a particularly high amount of biomass and thrives in harsh conditions. In an in-depth investigation of this salt-stress-induced sugar accumulation conducted by an international team, including scientists from KIT, it was found that the SWEET13 gene switch is responsible for directing sugar into the grains.
The Molecular Cell Biology Division workgroup, headed by Professor Peter Nick at KIT’s Joseph Gottlieb Kölreuter Insitute for Plant Sciences (JKIP), has been working for some years on sorghum millet, which belongs to the millet species in the sweet grass family.
The sorghum varieties rich in sugar are called sweet sorghum. Sorghum millet is one of the crops with a particularly efficient photosynthesis process and has a higher capacity to sequester carbon dioxide (CO₂) and build up more biomass than other plants.
Sorghum Research Expands Applications
Previous research by Syrian scientist Adnan Kanbar at KIT resulted in the development of a new sweet sorghum variety that accumulates a particularly large amount of sugar and is well suited for producing biogas, biofuels and new polymers.
Sorghum Crop Field
Further research shows that sorghum millet, an ancient crop plant from Sudan, thrives even in harsh conditions. “Certain sorghum millet varieties not only cope well in a saline environment but react to increased salinity with the production of even more sugar,” said Peter Nick.
“Some of these varieties store the sugar in the stem, which makes them a candidate for energy use, i.e., the production of biofuels. Other varieties store the sugar in the seeds, making them a valuable contribution to human nutrition.”
This salt stress-induced sugar accumulation and the different ways sorghum stores sugars were investigated by a group of researchers led by Eman Abuslima, plant physiologist at Suez Canal University in Egypt.
They discovered that the SWEET13 gene is responsible for sugar transport. “SWEET13 works like a switch: It determines that the sucrose formed by photosynthesis is directed into the plant’s grains,” said Abuslima.
