Abstract
BackgroundSwitchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a promising bioenergy feedstock because it can be grown on marginal land and produces abundant biomass. Recalcitrance of the lignocellulosic components of the switchgrass cell wall to enzymatic degradation into simple sugars impedes efficient biofuel production. We previously demonstrated that overexpression of OsAT10, a BAHD acyltransferase gene, enhances saccharification efficiency in rice.ResultsHere we show that overexpression of the rice OsAT10 gene in switchgrass decreased the levels of cell wall-bound ferulic acid (FA) in green leaf tissues and to a lesser extent in senesced tissues, and significantly increased levels of cell wall-bound p-coumaric acid (p-CA) in green leaves but decreased its level in senesced tissues of the T0 plants under greenhouse conditions. The engineered switchgrass lines exhibit an approximate 40% increase in saccharification efficiency in green tissues and a 30% increase in senesced tissues.ConclusionOur study demonstrates that overexpression of OsAT10, a rice BAHD acyltransferase gene, enhances saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass in switchgrass.
Highlights
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a promising bioenergy feedstock because it can be grown on marginal land and produces abundant biomass
The OsAT10 orthologs are conserved in grasses To facilitate the transfer of the OsAT10 engineering approach to other putative bioenergy crops, we analyzed OsAT10 orthologs from multiple plant species, including switchgrass, sorghum and maize (Fig. 1)
PvAT10 is highly similar to its putative orthologs in other grass species as well, including Panicum hallii (91% identity), Setaria viridis (91% identity), Sorghum bicolor (84% identity) and Brachypodium distachyon (79% identity)
Summary
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a promising bioenergy feedstock because it can be grown on marginal land and produces abundant biomass. Recalcitrance of the lignocellulosic components of the switchgrass cell wall to enzymatic degradation into simple sugars impedes efficient biofuel production. First generation biofuels (i.e. biodiesel, bioethanol, and biogas) are mainly derived from starch, sugar and vegetable oil. Because these biofuels are produced from food or feed crops, less land is available to produce. Switchgrass produces abundant lignocellulose, this biomass is not converted to simple sugars. This recalcitrance is due mainly to the structure
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