How can plant breeding extend the regions where grain sorghum can be grown?

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Close-up of triticale grains scattered on a wooden surface with several wheat-like triticale heads lying on top. — Plant breeding Triticale is a hybrid of rye and wheat.

Plant breeding has successfully extended the cultivation range of grain sorghum by developing earlier-maturing varieties.1

Although grain sorghum is of tropical origin and was historically restricted to the southern Plains and the Southwest in the United States, these genetic modifications allow the crop to thrive in much cooler climates, making it a viable and important agricultural product as far north as North Dakota.1