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ARS Home » Plains Area » Lincoln, Nebraska » Wheat, Sorghum and Forage Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #339781
Title: Modifying lignin composition and content of sorghum biomass for improved bioenergy conversion

Author
item Tetreault, Hannah
item Scully, Erin
item CLEMENTE, THOMAS - University Of Nebraska
item Sattler, Scott

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/28/2016
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is an opportune crop for bioenergy due to its high yield potential, and lower nitrogen and water requirements. Transgenic constructs expressing monolignol biosynthetic genes under control of 35S promoter have been developed and used for sorghum transformation to examine the consequences to biomass composition and energy content. Ectopic expression of caffeoyl CoA O-methyltransferase (SbCCoAOMT), an enzyme in the monolignol pathway, resulted in an increase in total energy content and modifications to cell wall composition that were detectable through histochemical staining and GC-MS analysis. 35S::SbCCoAOMT induced changes may improve sorghum biomass for a range of conversion technologies.