Thus, transgenic plants with modified lignin content and composition can cope with large shifts in p-hydroxyphenyl/guaiacyl/syringyl lignin ratios and modified lignin can serve as improved feedstock for production of paper, biofibers, biofuels and forage.
Applications of this resource can target numerous agronomic traits in sorghum as well as provide insight in closely related grasses (e.g., sugarcane, switchgrass, Miscanthus x giganteus) for improved feedstock development.
In general, our results indicate that delaying harvest until fall improves feedstock quality, and ecotypic differences do exist between varieties for important feedstock quality traits.
If sufficient variation exists between cultivars, it could be exploited by crop breeders to improve feedstock quality [ 2].
If the mutants are created in a parent with a favorable bioenergy trait baseline, it is possible to map genes and improve feedstock at the same time.
Plant fiber engineering is also seen as a route to improve feedstock characteristics and further reduce the energy and cost of refining biomass [ 7- 9].
The increased plant size obtained upon targeted downregulation of a specific GAUT12 homolog as reported here suggests that a controlled manipulation of this gene to yield greater plant growth could be used to improve feedstock for the biofuel industry.
The association between lignin and the recalcitrance of biomass materials has long been recognized in forage feeding and tree pulping practices, and led to earlier lignin-engineering efforts aimed at improving feedstock performance in these processes [ 1].
In this brief review, we explore some of the possible mechanisms that could underlie this poorly understood phenomenon, with the expectation that an understanding of the cause of dwarfing in lignin biosynthetic mutants and transgenic plants could lead to new strategies for the development of improved bioenergy feedstocks.
Understanding these regulatory mechanisms may lead to rational strategies for improved growth characteristics for N. oceanica under challenging environmental conditions and for the development of improved microalgal feedstocks for high-value products or biofuel.
