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New discovery will enhance yield and quality of cereal and bioenergy crops

Date:
October 14, 2014
Source:
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Summary:
A team of scientists have developed a new way of identifying genes that are important for photosynthesis in maize, and in rice. Their research helps to prioritize candidate genes that can be used for crop improvement and revealed new pathways and information about how plants fix carbon.
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A team of scientists led by Thomas Brutnell, Ph.D., director of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center have developed a new way of identifying genes that are important for photosynthesis in maize, and in rice. Their research helps to prioritize candidate genes that can be used for crop improvement and revealed new pathways and information about how plants fix carbon.

The findings, published in "Comparative analyses of C4 and C3 photosynthesis in developing leaves of maize and rice," on October 12, 2014 in Nature Biotechnology, also made public a mathematical model enabling access to datasets comparing C4 photosynthesis traits in plants like maize to C3 photosynthesis in plants like rice.

C4 crops including maize, sorghum, switchgrass and sugarcane are able to withstand drought, heat, nitrogen and carbon dioxide limitations better than C3 crops, such as rice, wheat, barley and oats, due to their ability to efficiently make use of carbon dioxide and water that make carbohydrates we eat and cell wall polysaccharides; the sugars that are important to producing next-generation biofuels.

"Our research focuses on understanding complex network interactions in grasses with a goal of engineering C4 traits into C3 grasses which can be translated into crops that impact the supply of food and fuel," said Brutnell. "The technologies that our team developed to identify regulatory genes that enhance photosynthesis in C4 crops can be extended to identify control points for other processes including nitrogen and phosphate efficiency as well as a plant's response to environmental stresses like heat and drought."

The Danforth Center has expanded their portfolio over the years by studying model C4 grasses to improve the quality, yield and biomass of emerging bioenergy feedstocks such as miscanthus and switchgrass and that can be applied to improve food security and major cereal crops.

Todd Mockler, Ph.D., Geraldine and Robert Virgil Distinguished Investigator and Doug Bryant, Ph.D., director of the bioinformatics core facility have developed algorithms and technology to better understand important genes and genomes for a variety of significant crops using model plants. "The regulatory genes that impact photosynthesis are critically important for enhancing growth and yield and improving carbon capture in both food and bioenergy crops," said Mockler.


Story Source:

Materials provided by Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Lin Wang, Angelika Czedik-Eysenberg, Rachel A Mertz, Yaqing Si, Takayuki Tohge, Adriano Nunes-Nesi, Stephanie Arrivault, Lauren K Dedow, Douglas W Bryant, Wen Zhou, Jiajia Xu, Sarit Weissmann, Anthony Studer, Pinghua Li, Cankui Zhang, Therese LaRue, Ying Shao, Zehong Ding, Qi Sun, Rohan V Patel, Robert Turgeon, Xinguang Zhu, Nicholas J Provart, Todd C Mockler, Alisdair R Fernie, Mark Stitt, Peng Liu, Thomas P Brutnell. Comparative analyses of C4 and C3 photosynthesis in developing leaves of maize and rice. Nature Biotechnology, 2014; DOI: 10.1038/nbt.3019

Cite This Page:

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. "New discovery will enhance yield and quality of cereal and bioenergy crops." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 October 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141014124309.htm>.
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. (2014, October 14). New discovery will enhance yield and quality of cereal and bioenergy crops. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141014124309.htm
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. "New discovery will enhance yield and quality of cereal and bioenergy crops." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141014124309.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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