Sorgoleone with Drs. Sakiko Okumoto, Bill Rooney, and Guntur Subbarao

" Synthesis, function, and genetic variation of sorgoleone, the major biological nitrification inhibitor in sorghum " with Drs. Sakiko Okumoto, Bill Rooney, and Guntur Subbarao When we fertilize our crops, some of the nitrogen from that fertilizer gets converted into different forms through processes called nitrification and denitrification. When non-plant available forms of nitrogen exit the soil through water or as gas, it's a serious environmental problem. Thankfully, plants have some pretty nifty ways to prevent nitrification, such as biological nitrification inhibition or BNI, a process that manages the bacteria that cause nitrification. In this episode, Sakiko, Bill, and Guntur join me to discuss sorgoleone, a product of sorghum roots that plays a key role in the BNI process. Tune in to learn: · What sorgoleone is · How it helps · What challenges breeders face in increasing it · What challenges researchers face in moving this research out into farms If you would like more information about this topic, this episode's paper is available here: This paper is always freely available. Contact us at podcast@sciencesocieties.org or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don't forget to

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Sorgoleone with Drs. Sakiko Okumoto, Bill Rooney, and Guntur Subbarao is an episode from Field, Lab, Earth by ASA, CSSA, SSSA.

This episode is 51:07 long.

This episode was published on Feb 20, 2026.

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