SORGHUM PLANTS HAVING A MUTANT POLYNUCLEOTIDE ENCODING THE LARGE SUBUNIT OF MUTATED ACETOHYDROXYACID SYNTHASE PROTEIN AND INCREASED RESISTANCE TO HERBICIDES

A sorghum seed comprising in its genome at least one polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having an alanine to tyrosine substitution at position 93 of 5 the sorghum AHAS protein large subunit. The plant has increased resistance to one or more herbicides, for example from the imidazolinone group, as compared to wild-type sorghum plants. The sorghum plant may comprise in its genome, one, two, three or more 10 copies of a polynucleotide encoding a mutated large subunit of sorghum AHAS or a sorghum AHAS polypeptide of the invention. In this context, the sorghum plant may be tolerant to any herbicide capable of inhibiting AHAS enzyme activity. For example, the sorghum plant may be tolerant to 15 herbicides of the imidazolinones type, such as imazethapyr, imazapir, and imazapic or to herbicides of the sulfonylurea group.