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

Journal Article · · Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12566· OSTI ID:1494155
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  1. Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences Aberystwyth University Aberystwyth UK
  2. Department for Innovation in Biological, Agrofood and Forest systems University of Tuscia Viterbo Italy
  3. USDA‐ARS U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center Madison Wisconsin
  4. Rothamsted Research Harpenden UK
  5. Lohne Germany
  6. Horticulture Section, School of Integrative Plant Science Cornell University Geneva New York
  7. SweTree Technologies AB Umeå Sweden, Institute of Crop Production Ecology Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Uppsala Sweden
  8. INRA‐BIOFORA Orléans France
  9. Department of Seed Science and Technology, Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science and Population Genetics University of Hohenheim Stuttgart Germany
  10. Institute of Genetics, Physiology and Plant Protection (IGFPP) of Academy of Sciences of Moldova Chisinau Moldova
  11. INRA‐AgroImpact Péronne cedex France
  12. Insitute of Miscanthus Hunan Agricultural University Hunan Changsha China
  13. Department of Crop Sciences &, Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, 279 Edward R Madigan Laboratory University of Illinois Urbana Illinois
  14. Dipartimento di Agricoltura Alimentazione e Ambiente Università degli Studi di Catania Catania Italy
  15. Plant Breeding Wageningen University &, Research Wageningen The Netherlands
  16. Battersea London UK
  17. Julius Kuhn‐Institut (JKI) Bundesforschungsinstitut fur Kulturpflanzen Braunschweig Germany
  18. Institute of Biological and Environmental Science University of Aberdeen Aberdeen UK
  19. SweTree Technologies AB Umeå Sweden
  20. Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute (TESRI) Nantou County Taiwan
  21. Department of Agronomy &, The Key Laboratory of Crop Germplasm Resource of Zhejiang Province Zhejiang University Hangzhou China
  22. Department of Agroecology Aarhus University Centre for Circular Bioeconomy Tjele Denmark
  23. Department of Biobased Products and Energy Crops, Institute of Crop Science University of Hohenheim Stuttgart Germany
  24. Department of Plant Sciences, Research Institute of Agriculture &, Life Sciences, CALS Seoul National University Seoul Korea
  25. Institute of Botany Jiangsu Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing China
  26. Natural Resources Research Institute University of Minnesota – Duluth Duluth Minnesota
  27. Energene sp. z o.o. Wrocław Poland
  28. James Hutton Institute University of Dundee Dundee UK
  29. GreenWood Resources, Inc. Portland Oregon
  30. Hudson‐Alpha Institute for Biotechnology Huntsville Alabama
  31. Biological Sciences University of Southampton Southampton UK
  32. The Center for Bioenergy Innovation Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tennessee
  33. Field Science Centre for the Northern Biosphere Hokkaido University Sapporo Japan
  34. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences 2 Kangwon National University Chuncheon South Korea
  35. USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station Rhinelander Wisconsin
+ Show Author Affiliations

Genetic improvement through breeding is one of the key approaches to increasing biomass supply. This paper documents the breeding progress to date for four perennial biomass crops (PBCs) that have high output–input energy ratios: namely Panicum virgatum (switchgrass), species of the genera Miscanthus (miscanthus), Salix (willow) and Populus (poplar). For each crop, we report on the size of germplasm collections, the efforts to date to phenotype and genotype, the diversity available for breeding and on the scale of breeding work as indicated by number of attempted crosses. We also report on the development of faster and more precise breeding using molecular breeding techniques. Poplar is the model tree for genetic studies and is furthest ahead in terms of biological knowledge and genetic resources. Linkage maps, transgenesis and genome editing methods are now being used in commercially focused poplar breeding. These are in development in switchgrass, miscanthus and willow generating large genetic and phenotypic data sets requiring concomitant efforts in informatics to create summaries that can be accessed and used by practical breeders. Cultivars of switchgrass and miscanthus can be seed-based synthetic populations, semihybrids or clones. Willow and poplar cultivars are commercially deployed as clones. At local and regional level, the most advanced cultivars in each crop are at technology readiness levels which could be scaled to planting rates of thousands of hectares per year in about 5 years with existing commercial developers. Investment in further development of better cultivars is subject to current market failure and the long breeding cycles. We conclude that sustained public investment in breeding plays a key role in delivering future mass-scale deployment of PBCs.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States); Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI), Urbana, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
DE‐AC05‐00OR22725, DE‐SC0006634, DE‐SC0012379, and DE‐SC0018420; AC05-00OR22725; SC0006634; SC0012379; SC0018420
OSTI ID:
1494155
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1494156; OSTI ID: 1625881; OSTI ID: 1991814
Journal Information:
Global Change Biology. Bioenergy, Journal Name: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy Vol. 11 Journal Issue: 1; ISSN 1757-1693
Publisher:
Wiley-BlackwellCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 91 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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