Progress in upscaling Miscanthus biomass production for the European bio-economy with seed-based hybrids

Funded by UK's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Grant Number: LK0863 BBSRC strategic programme Grant on Energy Grasses & Bio-refining. Grant Number: BBS/E/W/10963A01 OPTIMISC. Grant Number: FP7-289159 WATBIO. Grant Number: FP7-311929 Innovate UK/BBSRC ‘MUST’. Grant Number: BB/N016149/1Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Breeding progress and preparedness for mass‐scale deployment of perennial lignocellulosic biomass crops switchgrass, miscanthus, willow and poplar

UK: The UK‐led miscanthus research and breeding was mainly supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the BBSRC CSP strategic funding grant BB/CSP1730/1, Innovate UK/BBSRC “MUST” BB/N016149/1, CERES Inc. and Terravesta Ltd. through the GIANT‐LINK project (LK0863). Genomic selection and genomewide association study activities were supported by BBSRC grant BB/K01711X/1, the BBSRC strategic programme grant on Energy Grasses & Bio‐refining BBS/E/W/10963A01. The UK‐led willow R&D work reported here was supported by BBSRC (BBS/E/C/00005199, BBS/E/C/00005201, BB/G016216/1, BB/E006833/1, BB/G00580X/1 and BBS/E/C/000I0410), Defra (NF0424) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) (B/W6/00599/00/00). IT: The Brain Gain Program (Rientro dei cervelli) of the Italian Ministry of Education, University, and Research supports Antoine Harfouche. US: Contributions by Gerald Tuskan to this manuscript were supported by the Center for Bioenergy Innovation, a US Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Center supported by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the DOE Office of Science, under contract number DE‐AC05‐00OR22725. Willow breeding efforts at Cornell University have been supported by grants from the US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Contributions by the University of Illinois were supported primarily by the DOE Office of Science; Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER); grant nos. DE‐SC0006634, DE‐SC0012379 and DE‐SC0018420 (Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation); and the Energy Biosciences Institute. EU: We would like to further acknowledge contributions from the EU projects “OPTIMISC” FP7‐289159 on miscanthus and “WATBIO” FP7‐311929 on poplar and miscanthus as well as “GRACE” H2020‐EU.3.2.6. Bio‐based Industries Joint Technology Initiative (BBI‐JTI) Project ID 745012 on miscanthus.Peer reviewedPostprintPublisher PD

High-throughput SSR marker development and its application in a centipedegrass (Eremochloa ophiuroides (Munro) Hack.) genetic diversity analysis.

Centipedegrass (Eremochloa ophiuroides (Munro) Hack.) is a perennial, warm-season C4 grass species that shows great potential for use as a low-maintenance turfgrass species in tropical and subtropical regions. However, limited genetic and genomic information is available for this species, which has impeded systematic studies on the enhancement of its turf quality and resistance against biotic and abiotic stress. In this study, Illumina HiSeq high-throughput sequencing technology was performed to generate centipedegrass transcriptome sequences. A total of 352,513 assembled sequences were used to search for simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci, and 64,470 SSR loci were detected in 47,638 SSR containing sequences. The tri-nucleotides were the most frequent repeat motif, followed by di-nucleotides, tetra-nucleotides hexnucleotides, and pentanucleotides. A total of 48,061 primer pairs were successfully designed in the flanking sequences of the SSRs, and 100 sets of primers were randomly selected for the initial validation in four centipedegrass accessions. In total, 56 (56.0%) of the 100 primer pairs tested successfully amplified alleles from all four centipedegrass accessions, while 50 were identified as polymorphic markers and were then used to assess the level of genetic diversity among 43 centipedegrass core collections. The genetic diversity analysis exhibited that the number of alleles (Na) per locus ranged from 3 to 13, and the observed heterozygosity (Ho) ranged from 0.17 to 0.83. The polymorphism information content (PIC) value of the markers ranged from 0.15 to 0.78, and the genetic distances (coefficient Nei72) between the accessions varied from 0.07 to 0.48. The UPGMA-based dendrogram clustered all 43 core collections into two main groups and six subgroups, which further validated the effectiveness of these newly developed SSR markers. Hence, these newly developed SSR markers will be valuable and potentially useful for future genetic and genomic studies of E. ophiuroides

Ultralow-quantum-defect single-frequency fiber laser

A single-frequency distributed-Bragg-reflector fiber laser at 980 nm with a quantum defect of less than 0.6% was developed with a 1.5-cm 12 wt% ytterbium-doped phosphate fiber pumped by a 974.5-nm laser diode. Linearly polarized single-longitude-mode laser with a polarization extinction ratio (PER) of nearly 30 dB and spectral linewidth of less than 1.8 kHz was obtained. A maximum output power of 275 mW was measured at a launched pump power of 620 mW. The performance of the single-frequency fiber laser pumped at 909 nm and 976 nm was also characterized. This research demonstrated an approach to high-power single-frequency fiber laser oscillators with mitigated thermal effects.12 month embargo; first published 14 July 2023This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Molecular Characterization and Phylogenetic Analysis of Centipedegrass [<i>Eremochloa ophiuroides</i> (Munro) Hack.] Based on the Complete Chloroplast Genome Sequence

Centipedegrass (Eremochloa ophiuroides) is an important warm-season grass plant used as a turfgrass as well as pasture grass in tropical and subtropical regions, with wide application in land surface greening and soil conservation in South China and southern United States. In this study, the complete cp genome of E. ophiuroides was assembled using high-throughput Illumina sequencing technology. The circle pseudomolecule for E. ophiuroides cp genome is 139,107 bp in length, with a quadripartite structure consisting of a large single copyregion of 82,081 bp and a small single copy region of 12,566 bp separated by a pair of inverted repeat regions of 22,230 bp each. The overall A + T content of the whole genome is 61.60%, showing an asymmetric nucleotide composition. The genome encodes a total of 131 gene species, composed of 20 duplicated genes within the IR regions and 111 unique genes comprising 77 protein-coding genes, 30 transfer RNA genes, and 4 ribosome RNA genes. The complete cp genome sequence contains 51 long repeats and 197 simple sequence repeats, and a high degree of collinearity among E. ophiuroide and other Gramineae plants was disclosed. Phylogenetic analysis showed E. ophiuroides, together with the other two Eremochloa species, is closely related to Mnesithea helferi within the subtribe Rottboelliinae. These findings will be beneficial for the classification and identification of the Eremochloa taxa, phylogenetic resolution, novel gene discovery, and functional genomic studies for the genus Eremochloa

Genetic variation of salinity tolerance in Chinese natural bermudagrass (<i>Cynodon dactylon</i> (L.) Pers.) germplasm resources

<div><p>Bermudagrass (<i>Cynodon dactylon</i> (L.) Pers.) is a widely used turfgrass in tropical, subtropical and warm-temperate regions in the world. It is a salinity-tolerant plant, but much genetic variation exists among its genotypes. Genetic diversity has been shown to exist from a morphologic level to a molecular level among Chinese natural bermudagrass germplasm resources; however, the extent of variation in their salinity tolerance has remained unclear. We conducted greenhouse hydroponic and sand culture experiments to evaluate the variation in salinity tolerance of natural bermudagrass germplasm resources obtained from their main areas of distribution in China and treated at a 33 dS m⁻¹ salinity level for three weeks. Compared with non-saline controls, salinity stress significantly decreased shoot clipping weight (46.5% and 44.2%) and increased leaf firing (41.1% and 37.6%) in hydroponic and sand culture experiments, respectively, across all genotypes. However, significant genetic variations in relative leaf firing percentage (RLF) and relative shoot weight (RSW) were found among genotypes in both experiments, and their coefficients of variation ranged from 25.5% to 41.6%, indicating that considerable variation exists in the salinity tolerance of Chinese natural bermudagrass germplasm resources. Shoot Na⁺ concentrations increased under salinity stress for all genotypes in both experiments. However, significant genetic variations were also found in shoot Na⁺ concentrations. Salinity tolerance in bermudagrass genotypes was found to be significantly negatively correlated with shoot Na⁺ concentrations in both experiments. Using a cluster analysis of RLF and RSW data, all genotypes were classified into four groups with different salinity tolerances. The results of our evaluation indicate that there is much potential for improving salinity tolerance among Chinese natural bermudagrass cultivars.</p></div