Lignocellulosic feedstocks: genetic complexity and bioenergy potential

As we enter the third millennium, it seems difficult to ignore the societal and environmental consequences of our reliance on finite fossil fuels. Alongside the quest for energy security, climate change and its detrimental effects on the environment and agriculture have instigated a global pursuit for sustainable alternatives. With the advent of biorefinery technologies enabling plant biomass to be processed into industrial products, many researchers set out to study and improve candidate biomass crops. Many of these candidates are C4 grasses, characterized by a high productivity and resource use efficiency. Genetic studies are ideal platforms for assessing the extent of genetic diversity, inferring the genetic architecture and evaluating complex trait inter-relations for cell wall compositional and bioconversion traits relevant to bioenergy applications. In this talk the suitability of lignocellulosic biomass from different grasses for biofuels and other industrial applications will be discussed. The genetic diversity available for biomass quality in grasses and how can this be used to develop optimized crops will also be presented