In February 2026, an episode titled “Sorgoleone with Drs. Sakiko Okumoto, Bill Rooney, and Guntur Subbarao” was released on Field, Lab, Earth, a podcast distributed by three major U.S. crop science societies — the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America.

The episode features Dr. Sakiko Okumoto (Texas A&M University), Dr. Bill Rooney (Texas A&M University), and Dr. G. V. Subbarao (Senior Researcher at JIRCAS) as guests. They discuss the biosynthetic pathway, functions, and genetic variation of “sorgoleone,” a compound secreted from sorghum roots.

Research conducted primarily at JIRCAS has revealed that sorgoleone plays a key role in biological nitrification inhibition (BNI), a function that helps improve nitrogen fertilizer use efficiency and reduce emissions of nitrous oxide (N₂O) by suppressing the activity of nitrifying bacteria in the soil.

In the program, the researchers provide a clear and engaging explanation of the background and latest sorgoleone research findings, focusing on their paper published in Crop Science, titled “Synthesis, function, and genetic variation of sorgoleone, the major biological nitrification inhibitor in sorghum.” They discuss how this research contributes to elucidating the function of BNI and developing low-nitrification agricultural systems, as well as prospects for breeding and technological innovation.

The podcast can be streamed from the Crop Science Society’s website and on various podcast platforms.

Link to the episode: Field, Lab, Earth podcast episode page — “Sorgoleone with Drs. Sakiko Okumoto, Bill Rooney, and Guntur Subbarao”