Examining ozone effects on the tropical C4 crop Sorghum bicolor

Ozone (O<inf>3</inf>), a major air pollutant, can negatively impact plant growth and yield. While O<inf>3</inf> impacts have been widely documented in crops such as wheat and soybean, few studies have looked at the effects of O<inf>3</inf> on sorghum, a C<inf>4</inf> plant and the fifth most important cereal crop worldwide. We exposed grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor cv. HAT150843) to a range of O<inf>3</inf> concentrations (daytime mean O<inf>3</inf> concentrations ranged between 20 and 97 ppb) in open-top chambers, and examined how whole plant and leaf morphological traits varied in response to O<inf>3</inf> exposure. Results showed no significant impact of realistic O<inf>3</inf> exposure on whole plant biomass and its partitioning in sorghum. These findings suggest that sorghum is generally resistant to O<inf>3</inf> and should be considered as a favourable crop in O<inf>3</inf> polluted regions, while acknowledging further research is needed to understand the mechanistic basis of O<inf>3</inf> tolerance in sorghum.

PeerJ

PeerJ

13

2167-8359

N/A

1

15