Comparative Genetics of Inflorescence and Plant Height Components in Divergentcereal Lineages Represented By Sorghum (Panicoidae) and Rice (Oryzoidae)

The grass inflorescence, the primary food source for humanity, has been repeatedly selected during
domestication. Some well-characterized domestication traits related to the inflorescence include
pericarp color of seed, seed shattering, awn length/presence and seed size/yield. Of similarly high and
recurring importance in plant domestication and crop improvement are flowering time and plant height,
which often show significant genetic correlation with one another. Intersections among QTL, GWAS
and comparative data advance knowledge of genetic determinants of inflorescence and plant height
components in sorghum, and add new dimensions to comparisons between sorghum and rice. With a
recent discovery of ∼265,000 SNPs characterized in 917 worldwide sorghum accessions, and published
QTL data in sorghum and rice, we reveal “hotspots” that contribute to the domestication traits in
sorghum, and may or may not be of importance in the historical selection.