Improving biomass production and saccharification in Brachypodium distachyon through overexpression of a sucrose-phosphate synthase from sugarcane

The substitution of fossil by renewable energy sources is a major strategy in reducing CO 2 emission and mitigating climate change. In the transport sector, which is still mainly dependent on liquid fuels, the production of second generation ethanol from lignocellulosic feedstock is a promising stra...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of plant biochemistry and biotechnology 2016-07, Vol.25 (3), p.311-318
Main Authors: Falter, Christian, Voigt, Christian A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Cell Biology
Life Sciences
Original Article
Plant Biochemistry
Protein Science
Receptors
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Summary:The substitution of fossil by renewable energy sources is a major strategy in reducing CO 2 emission and mitigating climate change. In the transport sector, which is still mainly dependent on liquid fuels, the production of second generation ethanol from lignocellulosic feedstock is a promising strategy to substitute fossil fuels. The main prerequisites on designated crops for increased biomass production are high biomass yield and optimized saccharification for subsequent use in fermentation processes. We tried to address these traits by the overexpression of a sucrose-phosphate synthase gene ( SoSPS ) from sugarcane ( Saccharum officinarum ) in the model grass Brachypodium distachyon . The resulting transgenic B. distachyon lines not only revealed increased plant height at early growth stages but also higher biomass yield from fully senesced plants, which was increased up to 52 % compared to wild-type. Additionally, we determined higher sucrose content in senesced leaf biomass from the transgenic lines, which correlated with improved biomass saccharification after conventional thermo-chemical pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis. Combining increased biomass production and saccharification efficiency in the generated B. distachyon SoSPS overexpression lines, we obtained a maximum of 74 % increase in glucose release per plant compared to wild-type. Therefore, we consider SoSPS overexpression as a promising approach in molecular breeding of energy crops for optimizing yields of biomass and its utilization in second generation biofuel production.
ISSN:0971-7811
0974-1275
DOI:10.1007/s13562-015-0343-5