Abstract: Sweet sorghum, a special form of Sorghum bicolor L. Moench, is one of the energy crops with great potentialities of being utilized as a bio-based energy source to substitute fosal-based fuels . Total biomass and sugar contents of stem extracts determine the energy utilization efficiency in sweet sorghum. The most effective approach to develop elite sweet sorghum with superior biomass and high sugar content is to identify the molecular markers that genetically associated with the traits and the genes that underlying the molecular mechanism. From the viewpoint of genetic improvement of sugar-related traits in sweet sorghum, the progress of research covering of investigation of stem sugar accumulation, assessment of genetic diversity, construction of genetic maps and identification of QTLs for sugar-related traits are highlighted in this breaf review．