An international team of scientists reported on Wednesday it had laid bare the DNA code of sorghum, a hardy tropical cereal whose genes could one day be spliced to produce crops that resist global warming.

Sorghum (Latin name Sorghum bicolor) is related to sugar cane and corn and is grown in arid regions of northeast Africa, India and the southern United States for food, fibre, fuel and animal feed.

Sequencing of the sorghum genome adds to that in 2005 of the rice plant, the world’s most important food plant. Draft sequences of corn, also called maize, and soyabean were unveiled in 2008. Work is underway to sequence wheat, barley, as well as the tomato and potato.

The goal behind genomic sequencing is to find genes that can boost yields to help feed the world’s burgeoning population, or to enable the plant to survive harsh conditions inflicted by climate change.

These genes can then be introduced into other plants, using either traditional breeding techniques or genetic engineering, it is hoped.

The sorghum project, led by Andrew Paterson of the University of Georgia, is reported in this week’s issue of Nature, the British-based science journal.

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