The Sorghum Lipid Database (SoLD): population-scale lipidomics linking environmental and genetic variation in the Sorghum Association Panel
- 1Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry, N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.
Abstract
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is a climate-resilient crop whose acclimation to nutrient limitation and low temperature likely involves extensive lipidome reconfiguration. Lipids are key membrane components, carbon and energy stores, and mediators of stress signaling, yet population-scale lipidomics data for sorghum are limited. We present the Sorghum Lipid Database (SoLD), a curated lipidomics resource from the Sorghum Association Panel grown under two field regimes, (i) a nutrient- sufficient with usual planting date environment (control) and (ii) a low input treatment with reduced nitrogen and phosphorus, earlier planting, and no pesticide application (low input). Using high-resolution LC-MS, we quantified 266 lipid species and found the lipidome broadly similar across trials, with four low-input-associated signatures relative to control, (i) depletion of sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol, (ii) triacylglycerol enrichment, (iii) phospholipid redistribution centered on phosphatidylserine, and (iv) a shift in the lysophosphatidylcholine-to-lysophosphatidylethanolamine ratio. Genomic heritability was zero at the median under control against 0.171 under low input, and more of the lipidome could be mapped under low input. GWAS of lipid species, class sums, and class ratios recovered loci that were largely trial-specific, with candidate genes assigned by linkage disequilibrium and prioritized by LD-aware ontology enrichment and reaction mapping. Control-associated loci yielded twenty enriched gene sets, all confined to triacylglycerol traits and led by cutin biosynthesis, whereas low-input-associated loci yielded fifty-one across five lipid classes, centered on nutrient transport and signaling, cold-responsive regulators, and jasmonate and oxylipin genes, and including a chromosome 3 block carrying two LOW PHOSPHATE ROOT homologues. SoLD thus connects sorghum lipid diversity to environmental and genetic variation, and lets users move from lipid class to individual species and associated candidate loci. It is freely accessible at https://nirwan.shinyapps.io/SAP-Lipidomics-Database/.
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BibTeX
@misc{tandukar2026sorghum,
title = {{The Sorghum Lipid Database (SoLD): population-scale lipidomics linking environmental and genetic variation in the Sorghum Association Panel}},
author = {N. Tandukar and R. Locklear and R. E. Boyles and Z. W. Brenton and K. B. Louie and R. Rellan-Alvarez},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
doi = {10.64898/2026.06.05.727974},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.05.727974v2},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The Sorghum Lipid Database (SoLD): population-scale lipidomics linking environmental and genetic variation in the Sorghum Association Panel
AU - N. Tandukar
AU - R. Locklear
AU - R. E. Boyles
AU - Z. W. Brenton
AU - K. B. Louie
AU - R. Rellan-Alvarez
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/05
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.06.05.727974
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.05.727974v2
AB - Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is a climate-resilient crop whose acclimation to nutrient limitation and low temperature likely involves extensive lipidome reconfiguration. Lipids are key membrane components, carbon and energy stores, and mediators of stress signaling, yet population-scale lipidomics data for sorghum are limited. We present the Sorghum Lipid Database (SoLD), a curated lipidomics resource from the Sorghum Association Panel grown under two field regimes, (i) a nutrient- sufficient with usual planting date environment (control) and (ii) a low input treatment with reduced nitrogen and phosphorus, earlier planting, and no pesticide application (low input). Using high-resolution LC-MS, we quantified 266 lipid species and found the lipidome broadly similar across trials, with four low-input-associated signatures relative to control, (i) depletion of sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol, (ii) triacylglycerol enrichment, (iii) phospholipid redistribution centered on phosphatidylserine, and (iv) a shift in the lysophosphatidylcholine-to-lysophosphatidylethanolamine ratio. Genomic heritability was zero at the median under control against 0.171 under low input, and more of the lipidome could be mapped under low input. GWAS of lipid species, class sums, and class ratios recovered loci that were largely trial-specific, with candidate genes assigned by linkage disequilibrium and prioritized by LD-aware ontology enrichment and reaction mapping. Control-associated loci yielded twenty enriched gene sets, all confined to triacylglycerol traits and led by cutin biosynthesis, whereas low-input-associated loci yielded fifty-one across five lipid classes, centered on nutrient transport and signaling, cold-responsive regulators, and jasmonate and oxylipin genes, and including a chromosome 3 block carrying two LOW PHOSPHATE ROOT homologues. SoLD thus connects sorghum lipid diversity to environmental and genetic variation, and lets users move from lipid class to individual species and associated candidate loci. It is freely accessible at https://nirwan.shinyapps.io/SAP-Lipidomics-Database/.
ER -