Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is the fifth most cultivated cereal crop in the world, traditionally providing food, feed, and fodder, but more recently also fermentable sugars for the production of renewable fuels and chemicals. The hemibiotrophic fungal pathogen Colletotrichum sublineola, the causal agent of anthracnose disease in sorghum, is prevalent in the warm and humid climates where much of the sorghum is cultivated and poses a serious threat to sorghum production. The use of anthracnose-resistant sorghum germplasm is the most environmentally and economically sustainable way to protect sorghum against this pathogen. Even though multiple anthracnose resistance loci have been mapped in diverse sorghum germplasm in recent years, the diversity in C. sublineola pathotypes at the local and regional levels means that these resistance genes are not equally effective in different areas of cultivation. This review summarizes the genetic and cytological data underlying sorghum’s defense response and describes recent developments that will enable a better understanding of the interactions between sorghum and C. sublineola at the molecular level. This includes releases of the sorghum genome and the draft genome of C. sublineola, the use of next-generation sequencing technologies to identify gene expression networks activated in response to infection, and improvements in methodologies to validate resistance genes, notably virus-induced and transgenic gene silencing approaches.

高粱（Sorghum bicolor）是世界上第五大种植谷物作物，传统上提供食物，饲料和饲料，但最近也提供用于生产可再生燃料和化学物质的可发酵糖。高营养炭疽病的病原体是半营养型真菌病原菌炭疽菌，在温暖和潮湿的气候中普遍存在，那里种植了许多高粱，对高粱的生产构成了严重威胁。抗炭疽病高粱种质的使用是保护高粱免受这种病原体侵害的最环保，最经济的方法。即使近年来在多种高粱种质中已确定了多个炭疽病抗性位点，但亚线衣原体的多样性在局部和区域水平上的致病型意味着这些抗性基因在不同的栽培领域中并非同样有效。这篇综述总结了高粱防御反应的遗传学和细胞学数据，并描述了最近的发展，这些进展将使人们能够在分子水平上更好地理解高粱和亚线衣原体之间的相互作用。这包括高粱基因组和亚线衣原体的基因组草案的发布，使用下一代测序技术来鉴定响应感染而激活的基因表达网络，以及改进方法论以验证抗性基因，特别是病毒诱导和转基因基因沉默方法。