Determining the species distributions, habitat suitability and conservation prospects of sorghum's wild relatives

Sorghum is a promising crop for improving food security in the face of climate change. However, issues regarding sorghum’s genetic diversity and ability to produce toxic cyanide must be overcome if dependence on this crop continues to increase. Sorghum’s diverse crop wild relatives could be used to introduce new traits to sorghum, increasing the crop’s resilience and mitigating safety issues. However, the traits of sorghum’s wild relatives are understudied, and crop wild relatives are generally poorly conserved. My thesis aims to identify where wild relatives can be used to improve sorghum and determine the functions of cyanide production in sorghum.